A Staten Island shopping center erupted in mayhem yesterday when two drug suspects plowed into a detective with their car — sparking a hail of gunfire from the wounded officer, cops said.
“I was pulling up the block to get to work and I heard . . . gunshots. They were all in a row. It sounded like a loud popping sound,” said a stunned Drew Bostino, co-owner of the Chrysalis Hair Salon in Castleton Corners, near the shooting scene in the Manor Heights Shopping Plaza.
Just after 1 p.m., two plainclothes NYPD detectives assigned to the Staten Island District Attorney’s Office were staking out a pair of young men — Joseph Goepel and Frank Cosentino — who were sitting in a 2011 Hyundai Sonata parked in the plaza’s lot, cops said.
Goepel, 24, and Cosentino, 18, were known to the cops because both were arrested together Dec. 21 in connection with a drug deal, sources said. Goepel has two other prior busts — for aggravated harassment in 2009 and misdemeanor drug possession in 2007.
Yesterday, as they sat in the Hyundai, detectives saw them conducting a drug deal among themselves, police spokesman Paul Browne said.
One detective, a 26-year NYPD veteran, then walked up behind the Hyundai, while his partner, a 20-year veteran, walked to the front, police said.
Goepel jammed the Hyundai into reverse before changing gears and lurching forward, hitting the 20-year vet’s right knee, arm and hand, Browne said.
That cop squeezed off four shots at the car from his Glock pistol, with one shot piercing the windshield and grazing Goepel’s head, police said. Cosentino was cut by the shattered glass.
Goepel sped off — but he and Cosentino were soon nabbed by an NYPD anti-crime unit about a mile away.
Police allegedly found cocaine and at least 30 OxyContin pills in the car.
The officer who was hit by the Hyundai was taken for treatment to Staten Island University Hospital, as was his partner, who had chest pains. The two suspects were taken to Richmond University Medical Center.
None of the injuries are considered serious.
Assault and drug charges were pending.
Law & order of events
1. 1:20 p.m.: Two undercover cops spot two men allegedly doing a drug deal in a car in the parking lot of a shopping plaza.
2. After getting hit by the suspects’ car, one cop fires off four rounds as the men speed away.
3. An NYPD anti-crime unit stops the car a mile away, finding cocaine and at least 30 OxyContin pills, according to cops.