The Red Hook housing projects where Bobby Boomer was arrested. (Alex Rud)
The gun recovered today (
)
Two plainclothes officers patrolling in Brooklyn came under fire early this morning when a gun-toting thug started blasting at them – just 90 minutes after police arrested another armed punk in front of the same housing project, cops said.
The officers rushed to Mill Street near Columbia Street in Red Hook shortly before 1 a.m. to investigate reports of an armed man, cops said.
When police officers Michael Walsh and Angelo Pizzarro arrived they spotted a hooded man with a handgun tucked into his waistband walking toward Kennedy Fried Chicken near Mill and Hicks Street, cops added.
The suspect – later identified as Bobby Boomer, 20 – fled once he spotted the cops, who pursued him into the Red Hook East housing project.
During the foot chase, Boomer turned and squeezed off one round, police said.
The bullet missed its mark and neither cop was wounded.
The bandit ditched his .45 Smith and Wesson semi-automatic handgun inside the doorway of 21 Mill Street, ran up to the roof, then scampered to the roof of adjoining 15 Mill Street, a connecting part of the development, cops said.
Boomer then ducked into a sixth-floor apartment and hid under the bed, which is where he was cornered and arrested by officers from the NYPD Emergency Services Unit.
Pizzarro is a seven-year veteran and Walsh has been on the force five years.
Cops also recovered Boomer’s gun, which they said had been reported stolen in Georgia.
Law-enforcement sources said Boomer belongs to the Mad Dog Crew, a gang that has been terrorizing Red Hook residents. He was busted in 2009 for pot possession and is on probation in Pennsylvania for a drug sale, the sources added. Boomer has been charged with attempted murder of a police officer, criminal possession of a stolen weapon, and criminal trespass.
“Fortunately, our police officers escaped injury this time,” said NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly. “They continue to risk their lives to protect New Yorkers in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, confronting suspects, all too many armed with illegal handguns.”
About 90 minutes before Boomer shot at the cops chasing him, two other police officers watched Stanley Dorcius, 22, show a handgun to a group of men drinking beer in front of 21 Mill Street, cops said. The two cops called for backup and arrested Dorcius, who ran, punched, and kicked the four arresting officers.
Dorcius was charged with criminal possession of a weapon – a defaced, fully loaded 45-caliber semi-automatic, criminal possession of 13 bags of marijuana, and resisting arrest.
On July 5, a gunman opened fire at Officer Brian Groves as he did a floor-by-floor sweep of a 23-story building within a Lower East Side housing project on Essex Street in Manhattan.
Groves was hit in the chest but was saved by his bulletproof vest.
The gunman remains on the lam, but today detectives canvassed all 179 apartments in the building where Groves was shot. A reward of $22,000 is offered for the arrest and conviction of Grove’s shooter.
Nine police officers, including Groves, have been shot in the line of duty this year; all have survived.