The spate of NYPD cops wounded in the line of duty this year has brought back horrible memories of the city’s bad old days to the founder of the nonprofit group COP SHOT.
“All the shootings this year brought me back to 1984, a year where so many cops were shot, wounded and murdered,” Edward Arrigoni said of the year he started the charity, when 22 cops were shot.
This year, there have been 10 cops wounded while on-duty.
Arrigoni decided to start the organization, whose acronym stands for “Citizens Outraged At Police Being Shot,” to create a standing $10,000 reward for informants when someone either shoots at or wounds a cop — a powerful deterrent on the street.
“It’s so important, more than ever,” said Arrigoni. “It’s a breakdown in society that so many officers are being shot at or shot.”
Most recently, COP SHOT has worked to find the still-on-the-loose gunman who wounded Officer Brian Groves on the Lower East Side in July.