ON HIS FEET: Shot cop Craig Bier rises from his wheelchair to get into a waiting car outside Jamaica Hospital. (Matt McDermott)
Fellow Finest cheer outside Jamaica Hospital. (Matt McDermott)
A hero cop shot in both legs as he chased a crook in Queens was discharged from Jamaica Hospital today.
Sgt. Craig Bier left the hospital just after 1 p.m. to bagpipe music and the uproarious cheers and applause of a blue line of more than 100 fellow officers in dress uniforms.
Bier, 44, appeared to be moved to tears by the officers’ sentiments as he was taken to a waiting car.
“I feel good. I feel good,” Bier said.
Bier — who has been awarded 65 medals during his 15-year career — spent part of his last morning in the hospital reading physical fitness magazines, and has already started his physical therapy regimen, said NYPD Lt. John Connolly.
“He’s really into staying in shape. Really great guy, just a warrior,” said Connolly, who works on employee relations for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
The officer is expected to make a speedy recovery.
Bier’s alleged shooter — identified as John Thomas, 24, a Jamaica record with a long record of drug arrests — is still at large.
Cops have papered Queens with posters noting that Biers might have been wounded in the shootout with Bier in Jamaica on Wednesday night.
Thomas would be wise to give himself up, said Sergeants Benevolent Association president Ed Mullins.
The SBA added $10,000 to the reward offered for information leading to Thomas’s arrest — bringing the total bounty on the suspect to $32,000.
“I have to believe someone is hiding him,” said Mullins. “To that person I say, there is a lot of money on his head. Take the money and turn him in. We are going to get him anyway.”
Bier is the 10th cop to be wounded in the line of duty this year.
Shootings are up 9 percent in New York this year.
As of Aug. 5, there have been 882 shooting incidents and 1058 shooting victims this year. That compares with 806 shooting incidents and 977 shooting victims over the same period in 2011, NYPD data shows.