Yesterday afternoon, a series of shootings near the Metro-North station in Poughkeepsie have left three people dead, including a police officer. The Poughkeepsie Journal reports, "Police said a man apparently shot and killed his wife in a car in a downtown parking lot, then was fatally wounded in a confrontation with police in which a 18-year veteran of the department was shot in the head."
Just after 1 p.m., the police responded to a report that there was a shooting at a parking lot near the train station. They found a man holding a three-year-old child. The man ran from the scene, so the cops chased him. According to the Daily News, "After a brief confrontation, the officer snatched the 3-year-old from the suspect's hands, and the man took off. The cop handed the child to a bystander and again raced after the suspect, authorities said. Several officers joined in the chase, which ended with a cop, an 18-year veteran of the force, shot in the head and the suspect mortally wounded. He died hours later at a local hospital."
The police found the suspect's wife shot in the car; she and the suspect were pronounced dead at a hospital. The Poughkeepsie police said the shooting occurred over five minutes. Mayor John Tkazyik said it was "perhaps the worst day the city has seen ...This is a tragic day in the City of Poughkeepsie for our citizens and for our uniformed personnel. And at this point, I can only ask that you keep the officers and their families in your thoughts and prayers."
