An NYPD officer was shot and killed early Sunday morning after a struggle with an allegedly armed suspect in the Bronx.
According to the police, Officer Brian Mulkeen and two other members of his Bronx Anti-Crime unit had approached 27-year-old Antonio Williams outside of the Edenwald Houses to question him, when he ran.
"[Officers] were there because of gang activity, which included recent shootings in the area... as recent as last night," NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan told reporters at a press conference on Sunday morning. "We saw him walking, he looked suspicious. As you see on body cam, he starts running, and you can see clearly he’s reaching into his waist, trying to pull something out."
Officer Mulkeen pursued Williams and attempted to arrest him, and the two began to struggle on the ground, police said.
"On body-worn camera, Officer Mulkeen can be heard yelling, 'He’s reaching for it. He’s reaching for it,'" Monahan said. "At this time numerous shots were fired and our officer was struck a total of three times. Five officers at the location fired their service weapons striking [Williams]." An NYPD spokesperson said they could not say how many bullets hit Williams.
Williams was pronounced dead at the scene. Officer Mulkeen was rushed to Jacobi Hospital, but could not be saved. He was 33 years old.
Police said they found a .32 caliber firearm at the scene that Williams had, but that it had not been fired; Officer Mulkeen's weapon had been fired five times. "At this point, we are not sure who fired Officer Mulkeen’s gun," Chief Monahan said. Police sources told the Daily News that the department is investigating the possibility that Mulkeen was shot by his fellow officers.
Williams lived in Binghamton, New York, and was out on probation for a 2018 drug charge, according to the NYPD. He had also been convicted of second-degree burglary in Rockland County in 2012. The Times spoke to his uncle, who called him a "good nephew."
Mulkeen is the second police officer to be killed in the line of duty this year. NYPD Detective Brian Simonsen was shot and killed by his fellow officers in February while responding to a robbery in Queens in which the assailant was brandishing a fake gun.
"When we met with his family—Commissioner Tucker and Chief Monahan and a number of us spent time with his mom and his dad, his sister, his girlfriend and we—we broke the news to them," Mayor Bill de Blasio said at the press conference. "And one of the things they told us, even with their grief, was that Brian made a choice, an incredibly noble choice to leave a civilian life, a lucrative career. He wanted to protect other people. He loves this city, he wanted to protect other people, and he put his life on the line, and he gave his life for all of us."
The Times reported that Officer Mulkeen graduated from Fordham in 2008 and joined in the NYPD in 2013 "after growing restless with an early career in finance." The NYPD said he had earned five medals of excellence, and arrested a man with a gun the night before he was killed. Mulkeen lived in Yorktown Heights with his girlfriend, who is also an NYPD officer in the Bronx.
“He comes off as this big guy, intimidating in size, but his smile — he had this jolly and cheerful personality,” one of Mulkeen's Fordham classmates told the Times. “He was a mentor. Always helpful. You could go to him with any issue.”
