WROLD NEWS:- Police Officer Is Killed in Bronx Area Struggling With Gang Violence.

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After nearly seven years on the job, the 33-year-old New York City police officer knew the danger he faced as he wrestled a fleeing man to the ground just after midnight Sunday.

“He reached for it! He’s reaching for it!” body camera footage recorded Officer Brian Mulkeen shouting, police officials said.

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Moments later, Officer Mulkeen was shot at close range and fatally wounded in the Bronx, the police said. A .32-caliber pistol was recovered from the man, who was shot dead in the aftermath by five responding officers, the police said.

New York City Police Department, via Associated Press

Chief Terence A. Monahan said Officer Mulkeen, who had been assigned to the Bronx’s anti-crime unit, was restraining the man when the shots were fired.

The officer was struck three times by bullets from his own gun, the police said. But police officials said it was not clear who had pulled the trigger. Officer Mulkeen was taken to Jacobi Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

The shooting took place about 12:30 a.m. outside the Edenwald Houses in the Bronx, where Officer Mulkeen was patrolling with his partner. The area had seen an increase in gang activity and shootings, Chief Monahan said.

Just after midnight, three police officers attempted to question a man behind the Edenwald complex, the police said. The man fled, and officers in the area pursued him on foot.

Officer Mulkeen and his partner were struggling with the man on the ground when Officer Mulkeen yelled that he saw the man reaching for a weapon, Chief Monahan said.

Gunfire followed.

Five officers at the location fired at the man, the police said. The man, whom the police did not immediately name, was pronounced dead at the scene. It remains unclear if the revolver the police said he was carrying was fired during the struggle.

Officer Mulkeen joined the force in January 2013, Chief Monahan said. He lived in Yorktown Heights with his girlfriend, who is also a police officer in the Bronx.

“Brian was a great cop dedicated to keeping this city safe,” Chief Monahan said. “In fact, just last night he arrested a man in possession of a gun in the very same precinct.”

Fordham University said on Twitter that Officer Mulkeen was a graduate of the college who competed in weight throwing events on the track team while he was a student. Officer Mulkeen competed throughout his undergraduate career and won a bronze medal at the 2008 Atlantic 10 Indoor Track & Field Championship. He had recently rejoined the team as a volunteer coach, the school said.

The Edenwald section of the Bronx, where Officer Mulkeen was patrolling, was the site of one of the largest gang takedowns in city history in 2016. Police officers, as part of a sweeping federal indictment, arrested 120 people they said were gang members.

Violence in the area has leveled off since then. According to police data, shootings in the 47th Precinct where Officer Mulkeen was killed plummeted last year, but have since increased. There have been 15 shootings in the 47th Precinct so far this year, compared to 10 in 2018.

Officer Mulkeen’s death is the latest in a string of tragedies that have plagued the department this year.

The officer, who joined the force six and a half years ago, is the second New York police officer to be killed on duty this year. In February, Detective Brian Simonsen was shot and killed in a case of friendly fire when he and fellow officers confronted a robbery suspect in Queens.

Since January, nine New York police officers have died by suicide.

Officer Mulkeen is also the second police officer to be killed in the line of duty across the country this weekend. On Friday, Sandeep Dhaliwal, a sheriff’s deputy in Harris County, Tex., was shot and killed while making a traffic stop outside Houston.

Source - msn
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