TWO SHOT NYPD OFFICERS RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL, SHOOTER IN CUSTODY

Suspect charged in connection with NYPD-involved shootings

 

By Dean Balsamini and Joe Ma

 

New York Post

November 27, 2021

 

 

                                     

Charlie Vasquez faces two counts of attempted murder and other charges  

 

Surveillance video shows the moment NYPD Officers Robert Holmes and Alejandra Jacobs were shot by suspect Charlie Vasquez in the Bronx on Nov. 24, 2021

 

The suspect who allegedly opened fire at a pair of cops in the Bronx on Thanksgiving Eve was arrested and charged on Saturday, police said.

Charlie Vasquez, 23, of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, faces two counts each of attempted murder, assault, criminal use of a firearm, criminal possession of a weapon (loaded firearm) and reckless endangerment and menacing, the NYPD said.

Vasquez was taken into custody Wednesday night at St. Barnabas Hospital — where he was being treated after being shot once during the melee in Belmont, police and sources said. Vasquez is expected to survive, the NYPD said.

Vasquez has eight prior arrests and at least one for criminal possession of a weapon for allegedly pulling a shotgun on a 32-year-old male acquaintance during a squabble in Greenpoint on Oct. 19, 2017, police sources said.

In that that incident, Vasquez cocked the shotgun and pointed it directly at his victim before running off, the sources said. He was caught shortly after and charged with criminal possession of a weapon, a loaded firearm, menacing, with a weapon and unlawful possession of marijuana, according to cops and sources. 

The two NYPD cops were shot in The Bronx on Wednesday night while responding to a call of a person with a gun, police said.

The suspect opened fire at East 187th Street and Beaumont Avenue around 8 p.m., police said. He was then shot by one of the wounded cops, police said.

The cops were in uniform when they arrived, and spotted a person who matched a description of the suspect sitting on a stoop.

One of the officers, Robert Holmes, 31, an eight-year veteran, told the man to remove his hands from his pockets. The gunman then allegedly pulled out a Ruger handgun and opened fire, according to police.

The other officer — Alejandra Jacobs, a female Air Force reservist with one year on the job — was shot and returned fire five times, hitting the suspect, cops said. She was shot twice in the upper right arm.

Holmes struggled with the suspect and wrestled him to the ground. That officer was shot in the armpit during the struggle.

Both cops were originally taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where they were listed in stable condition. 

 

NYPD Officer Alejandra Jacobs left St. Barnabas Hospital to a round of applause from her fellow officers after she was shot twice in the arm during a gun arrest in the Bronx

 

Officer Robert Holmes was released from the hospital after he was shot in the arm on Nov. 24, 2021

 

Jacobs was discharged from the hospital on Thanksgiving. On Friday afternoon, Holmes was wheeled out of St. Barnabas Hospital to applause and salutes from other cops.

“Within seconds, they are in a gun battle,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said at a press conference late Wednesday night.

“We have two incredibly brave police officers doing their job. And not complaining a bit right now, as they’re laying recovering in the hospital, eager to get back to work, and loving what they do serving the people in New York City.”

Shea called the suspect a “career criminal” and said the firearm he allegedly used was reported stolen last year in Georgia.