Police at the 103 precinct posted a sketch of the suspected shooter. (
)
This Ruger 9mm handgun was recovered from the scene. (DCPI)
Police officers swarmed to Queens to search for the gunman who shot a NYPD sergeant Wednesday night. (William C Lopez)
LONG BLUE LINE: Police commanders prepare to dispatch street cops last night to help in the hunt for the gunman who wounded an officer in a Jamaica, Queens, shootout. (NY Post: William C. Lopez)
LONG BLUE LINE: Police commanders prepare to dispatch street cops last night to help in the hunt for the gunman who wounded an officer in a Jamaica, Queens, shootout. (
)
The NYPD is hunting for a gun-toting thug in Queens who shot a plainclothes cop last night.
Cops posted a picture of the man who allegedly shot Sgt. Craig Bier, believed to be 24-year-old Queens resident John Thomas, and he’s still on the loose, officials said.
Bier is expected to survive being shot in the legs.
It was another near-tragedy for Bier’s mother Betty Bier, whose husband — retired Det. Richard Bier — also had to overcome being shot in the line of duty.
“I’ve been through this before,” Betty Bier said of her retired cop husband, who did 23 years on the job.
“It’s a hard living when your kid or your husband is a police officer.”
Bier is the 10th NYPD cop to be wounded in the line of duty this year.
“He’s doing good. He was up and talking,” the worried mom said. “He’s stabilized and the bullet’s still in his leg.”
“He told me not to go ballistic because he knows his mother,” she told The Post.
After visiting her son, Betty Bier said she was thankful her son was “sitting up talking otherwise I would’ve been a basket case.”
“He felt fine but they had him on morphine so he should feel fine. They said he’d be more sore today.”
She got the near-tragic news from Bier’s brother, who also wanted to keep their mom calm.
“‘Now don’t get excited mom’ and I’m thinking ‘Oh God,'” she said, “and he told me Craig’s been shot. ‘Don’t worry dad is there with him, he’s alright.'”
“A mother never stops worrying about her children, I just hope he gets out soon.”
Betty Bier also commended her son’s fellow officers for their support. “I give aces to the policeman. There was never a time that the policemen weren’t in that room with him.”
A man who was grazed in the head from the shootout was taken into custody but police later released a sketch of John Thomas who they believe is the gunman.
Bier, 44, and Det. Nick Romano — both from the Queens Gang Unit — were patrolling Jamaica in an unmarked vehicle at about 10:30 p.m. when they spotted a man on a bicycle acting suspiciously, according to law enforcement sources.
The cops began following the man in their vehicle, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
The suspect then started running from the cops, who sprinted after him.
He ran down a narrow alleyway and climbed over a chain-link fence, Kelly said. The suspect then jumped onto the roof of a van in his attempt to flee.
Bier ran around the fence and the suspect then fired four times, Kelly said.
Bier, a 15-year-vet, was struck once in each thigh but was able to return fire and squeezed off six shots, Kelly said.
Bier collapsed near the fence before his partner was able to help him. A nearby Queens South Impact team rushed to the scene to help their wounded colleague, Kelly said.
One witness, a 27-year-old woman who lives nearby, said she saw the wounded cop’s fellow officers loading him into a car to rush him to the hospital.
“They just took him and threw him in an unmarked car,” the woman said. “They were yelling, ‘Take him to Jamaica Hospital! Take him to Jamaica Hospital!’”
While en route to the hospital, Kelly said Officer Kyle Miller, a certified EMT, applied pressure to Bier’s wounds.
Mayor Bloomberg and Kelly arrived at Jamaica Hospital early today to meet with Bier and his family.
“Thank God this officer will recover,” Bloomberg said. “He’s alert and in good spirits. He was joking around with the doctor,” Bloomberg said.
Kelly added: “This is the type of officer the public should thank God they have working for them.”
A 9mm pistol was recovered on 107th Avenue with three rounds left in the magazine and another in the chamber, Kelly said.
The bloodshed comes as city shootings are up more than 8 percent for the year, compared with 2011.
Additional reporting by larry Celona, Jennifer Bain, Tim Perone and Helen Freund