A 911 call about a burglary in Marine Park yesterday led to gunfire and the suspect taking his own life, according to police. Cops were called to Quentin Road, a suburban, tree-lined street, around 6:20 p.m., encountering the suspect as he left a house on the corner of East 37th Street. Police say the man opened fire, and an NYPD sergeant fired back, hitting him in the leg. He then ran around the corner, and police say that's when they heard another gun shot.
The cops found him on the sidewalk, and he was pronounced dead at the scene; witnesses told investigators they saw him shoot himself in the head. "I heard two noises that sounded like gunshots and then there was some silence," a neighbor, John Barrett, tells the Daily News. "Then, I heard a third one." A 9-millimeter Beretta (seen here) was found next to the suspect's body, and none of the officers involved were injured, the Times reports.
Local residents say there has been a dramatic spike in home burglaries in recent months. "This has been a great neighborhood for kids and everything. But lately there's a lot of police activities, home invasions, just in a couple of months alone," one resident tells NY1. Another local says, "There's some times a younger crowd that circulate the neighborhood—ya know late teens or so. And, ya know, a lot of them are maybe from out of the neighborhood that might be causing crime to happen out here." And neighbor Rona Mauro tells ABC, "We're just trying to figure out how a quiet neighborhood like Marine Park can have something like this happening."
