Cops shot an armed, ex-con car thief last night in a Brooklyn housing project, police said today.
The perp, Dahanj Sam, 29, had first been spotted in an SUV with North Carolina plates that had been stolen from East New York on Oct. 5, said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly at a press conference.
Police then began pursuing him in the car when he and his cohort suddenly ditched their ride at Kent Avenue and Broadway in Williamsburg at about 11:50 p.m., and Sam fled toward the Williams Plaza Houses, officials said.
Cops broadcast that they were involved in a foot pursuit, and other officers responded, authorities said.
Dahanj was jumping fences to escape but tripped while hopping over a chain-link fence at 225 Havemeyer, Kelly said. He fell, pulled out his 9mm handgun and fired at officers twice, Kelly said.
A 36-year-old cop and a 48-year-old detective squad commander both returned fire from about 4 feet away, Kelly said.
The cop fired twice and the sergeant seven times, he said.
Sam suffered nine wounds — although it was not immediately clear how many were entrance and exit wounds — to his hip, arm and chest.
He was in critical but stable condition at Bellevue Hospital today.
“I heard 10 shots — lots of shots — quickly! I heard the cops say, ‘Get down! Get down!’ ” said Aaron Kinard, 24, a nearby resident. “They rushed toward the guy who got shot. He was on his stomach.”
“I could his face,” he added, “You could see he was in pain. He was moaning.”
Kinard said he later spotted what he believed to be suspect’s black gun on the ground — and was shaken at the sight.
“I wasn’t expecting that. I was just nervous for my little one and my wife,” he said.
Cheryl Charles, 47, a peer counselor who lives nearby, said the shooting also frightened her and her daughter.
“I was awakened by gunshots. It was loud, like it was right at my ears!” she said. “We were so afraid to look, we stayed on the bed. [The suspect] was cuffed with officers walking on both side of him, holding his arms.”
Sam’s illegal weapon was traced to North Carolina, Kelly said.
The perp has several priors, including a stabbing and chain attack in 2001 for which he served seven years in a Pennsylvania prison. He also was busted for assault in 2011 and criminal sale of a controlled substance this past July.
Both officers had been involved in previous shootings, Kelly said.
In 1992, the detective sergeant was in a gunfight with five suspects in Queens, but no one was hit. The other officer had previously shot a dog after the animal attacked him in a Bed-Stuy housing project.
Additional reporting by C.J. Sullivan, Rebecca Harshbarger and Jamie Schram