Ivan Marcano (
)
Hero cop Ivan Marcano was promoted to detective this morning during an impromptu bedside visit by Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
The fearless crimestopper was promoted hours before two suspects were taken into custody.
Jason Levia, 20, was captured yesterday. Rodain Ortega, 20, turned himself in this morning. Police now believe Ortega and James were gunmen and Levia was the driver.
“He was surprised — he was a little sedated. Certainly very happy,” said Kelly after returning from Bronx Lebanon Hospital to City Hall with the mayor.
“He just did a remarkable job and [there was] a promotion ceremony today, so we thought it would be appropriate to do it. Obviously, he couldn’t attend, so that’s why we did it.”
Kelly was referring to a previously scheduled NYPD promotion ceremony, which Marcano couldn’t attend. Kelly and Bloomberg both hoped the promotion would boost his spirits.
Also present at the bedside was Marcano’s girlfriend. The brave detective was released from the hospital at around 11:30 a.m.
“We thought it would be a pleasant surprise. He was happy and indeed surprised. His lady friend was there and she was happy and indeed surprised.”
Bloomberg canceled his WOR radio show so he could appear with Kelly.
Marcano underwent surgery yesterday to have the bullet removed.
“He’s in pain. He had an operation yesterday,” Kelly said. “He had the bullet removed. It grazed his arm and entered his chest area and passed his heart, exited then entered his pectoral muscle and lodged there.”
Dramatic video released yesterday shows Marcano holding one hand over a bleeding bullet wound in his chest — and a gun in the other as he chases down three armed robbers in The Bronx.
Marcano fatally shot one of them and, still disregarding his injury, kept sprinting after another before he finally made his way to an ambulance for a trip to the hospital.
The surveillance video shows the 27-year-old off-duty cop as he squeezes off 10 shots — using a livery cab and other cars as cover — at members of the “Jackson Avenue Gunners’’ gang who had shot him minutes after he broke up a robbery.
The left-handed Marcano used that hand to apply pressure to his wound as he fired his Glock with his weaker right hand.
But Marcano still managed to put a bullet into the head of the man who shot him, Prince James. The 18-year-old thug had been busted for a shooting last month, but the Bronx DA declined to prosecute.
James died on the sidewalk at Burnside and Harrison avenues, next to the gang’s white Mustang getaway car.
The gun James used to shoot Marcano was stolen from South Carolina, sources said. James had a string of prior arrests — including assault, robbery and grand larceny — and was wanted for a parole violation, police sources said.
In the September Bronx case, James was arrested for allegedly shooting a rival gang member in the foot. A warm, .38-caliber gun with spent casings was found on the sidewalk next to James.
The victim refused to cooperate and DA Robert Johnson — whom The Post last month exclusively revealed has the lowest prosecution rate of any city district attorney — did not bring him to trial.
“They were waiting for DNA on the gun and released him,” said one fuming source. “They could have held him on a parole violation. Three days later they decided to — but by then he was gone.”
A spokesman for Johnson said there was “no public record” of that case but said it would have been dropped because it couldn’t be proved “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Marcano’s world collided with James’ as the cop was sitting in a car with girlfriend Hilda Miolan Forteza outside Abarca’s apartment building.
She spotted the holdup and, as Marcano got out of his car, James suddenly drew his gun and blasted at the cop, sources said.
The bullet grazed the cop’s left arm and entered his chest, just missing his heart.
As Forteza rushed Marcano to the hospital, they wound up behind James’ getaway car, the video shows.
The Mustang lurched forward, rear-ended a black livery cab, bounced off a parked car and careened onto the sidewalk.
The suspects fled the car, with James and Levia allegedly brandishing their guns.
Marcano scrambled out of his car, took cover, ordered passers-by to “get down!” and fired. He shot James, then chased another suspect.
After losing him, Marcano got into a nearby ambulance to Bronx-Lebanon Hospital. The cop, whose dad, Victor, died in a plane crash off Rockaway shortly after 9/11 — had the bullet removed yesterday.
“He said he was lucky,” Marcano’s grandfather Matias said. “Everything is OK. He doesn’t complain about anything.”
Additional reporting by Doug Auer, Larry Celona, Reuven Fenton, and Erin Calabrese