NYPD Officer Shot In Brooklyn, Suspect Killed Himself: Other Similar Incidents

A bulletproof vest saved the life of a New York City police officer Thursday after he was shot by a gunman several times. His attacker killed himself after an armed standoff in Brooklyn, police said.

The standoff took place on Ridgewood Avenue near Essex Street around 4:35 p.m. EDT, when the police officers were responding to a 911 call from a residence in the area about an “emotionally disturbed person,” James P. O’Neill, Commissioner of the New York Police Department (NYPD), said. The call was from a woman who said her 29-year-old mentally deranged son was in their residence in Brooklyn with her. She claimed her son was unarmed.

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Police officers and emergency medical technicians soon headed to the suspect’s apartment after the call. Some officers went to the rear of the home and circled around the back door as the mother had warned them her son might try to flee from there, according to O’Neill.

“As the first officer approached the rear bedroom, the subject fired several shots, striking the officer several times,” O’Neill said. He said the officer’s vest prevented a bullet from hitting his chest.

Officer Hart Nguyen, 30, who was shot in the standoff, has been serving the NYPD since July 2015. Medics took him to the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center and he was said to be in a stable condition, according to the New York Times.

“He had a great attitude. He was even trying to make light of the situation,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said as he spoke to reporters at the hospital Thursday night, USA Today reported. “Thank God our officer is going to come through OK in this case. This young man was definitely saved by his vest."

Police rescued the alleged shooter's mother from the house and then surrounded it along with state troopers and K9 units. Later in the evening, when the Emergency Services Unit officers entered the building, they found the gunman, identified as 29-year-old Andy Sookdeo, had fatally shot himself. The officers were not sure about what weapon Sookdeo used to shoot Nguyen, but they later recovered two guns at the scene. Police said it appeared to a rifle of some sort had been used to shoot the officer.

The commissioner held up the officer’s bulletproof vest and said, “This vest definitely saved his life,” as he showed it to the reporters Thursday night. He tweeted about the standoff from Jamaica Hospital Medical Center.

“It’s a small-caliber round, so you’re not going to be able to see where the impact was, but I did see the blunt force trauma injuries on the officer’s chest,” O’Neill said, according to New York Daily News.

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Several incidents of police officers being shot on duty have been reported in the past few months. Last week, Las Vegas police released body camera footage that showed a gunfight between an armed suspect and two police officers. The incident led to the death of the shooter and injured one of the officers with non-life threatening injuries.

In July, a Jacksonville, Florida, police officer was shot in the face during a shootout when he was pursuing a bank robbery suspect, the city’s police department said. The officer was in stable condition and the gunman was killed in the incident.

Police officers have also been killed in the line of duty in recent months. In July, an Indianapolis police officer was fatally shot while he was responding to a car crash. Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett condemned the shooting, and called it "a shocking and tragic reminder of the difficult, often dangerous work of police officers."

In April, a New York City police officer, Miosotis Familia, was killed after being shot in the head while she was on duty. She was sitting in a police vehicle in the Bronx when the suspect walked up and fired through the window.