A young man was shot and wounded early today in a struggle with members of the controversial Street Crime Unit in The Bronx, authorities said.
The shooting occurred in the Morris Heights neighborhood, near the intersection of Sedgwick and Undercliff avenues.
The circumstances were murky.
Police sources said the man was shot while struggling for an officer’s gun.
But an eyewitness said he believed the man was shot by a cop in a moving police car.
Police said a group of Street Crime Unit officers – who were in uniform – were investigating a series of push-in robberies, and confronted a group of youths.
One young man seemed to reach into his waistband. Another appeared to throw something, the cops said.
“There was a chase. There was a shooting,” a top police official said.
A witness told The Post he saw a cop reaching for the wounded man from his unmarked car before hearing a gunshot.
“The cops started to get out of the car, the kid started to run,” said the witness, Rasahn Cousins, who lives in Mount Vernon.
“He was running up Sedgwick. The police were next to him in the car. The policeman reached out of the car and grabbed him by the arm while the car was still moving. I heard the boom, and the kid dropped.”
But police said it was unlikely the man was shot from inside the police car, since that would violate official procedure.
The wounded man appeared to have two separate wounds, one in the buttocks and another in his abdomen, said a source at Lincoln Hospital, adding it was possible both wounds were caused by one bullet.
The hospital said the youth is 16 years old; but police said he’s 20.
Cops cordoned off the shooting scene to look for a gun they believe was carried by one of the teens.
The mostly-white Street Crime Unit has been under fire since the Feb. 4 shooting of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant killed by 19 of the 41 bullets fired by four of its members.
The youth shot last night was black or Hispanic, authorities said. The race of the cop who shot him was not known.
After the Diallo shooting, Street Crime officers – who had patrolled in plainclothes, were put in uniform.
The officers involved in the Diallo killing are awaiting trial.