Three police officers were hit by bullet fragments that ricocheted after the police fired at a pit bull charging at them from an apartment in a housing project on the Upper East Side late Wednesday night, a police official said.
A woman in the apartment who had opened the door, letting the pit bull out, was also hit. None of the injuries were serious, the police said.
The Police Department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said that a sergeant and five officers had been sent to the apartment at 1806 First Avenue, near East 93rd Street, after someone called 911 and reported an assault in Apt. 11-J. The caller said the assailant had a gun, Mr. Browne said.
The officers, from the 19th Precinct and the Midtown North Task Force, rang the doorbell and the door opened wide enough for the pit bull to race out, Mr. Browne said. Three of the officers opened fire, Mr. Browne said. He said it was not immediately clear how many bullets they had discharged.
The bullets richocheted in the close quarters of the hallway. One officer from the task force was hit by a bullet fragment under his right eye. Another fragment hit the hand of a second officer. An officer from the 19th Precinct was hit on the side of his nose.
The woman who had opened the door, whose name was not immediately released, was hit in the arm.
All the injured were taken to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
The woman who let the dog out was arrested. The dog died in the shooting.
Mr. Browne said the police found five other people in the apartment but no gun. He said all five were being questioned.
He said the police were investigating whether the call that sent the officers there had actually come from inside the apartment or from somewhere else.
Al Baker and Mathew R. Warren contributed reporting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/nyregion/09cop.html?_r=2&hp
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