AP News, July 10th, 2007
Police took a suspect into custody Tuesday and were searching for two others in the shooting of two young officers during a traffic stop of a stolen SUV, authorities said.
Among the men being sought was a former employee of a car dealership where the BMW sport utility vehicle was stolen. He and the second missing man are parolees with long criminal records, police said.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly _ visiting Washington with Mayor Michael Bloomberg to lobby against rules restricting cities' access to federal data on the sources of illegal guns _ identified the man already in custody as 29-year-old Lee Woods.
A small army of investigators was looking for Dexter Bostic, 34, a former dealership employee also known as Marcus Jackson and Dexter Bostick; and Robert J. Ellis, 34, officials said. The department released mug shots of the men and announced a $64,000 reward for information leading to their capture.
One of the officers, Belarus-born Russel Timoshenko, 23, remained in "very, very grave condition" with a head wound, Kelly said.
Supporters of the rules restricting data access would change their view if they could meet Timoshenko's parents, "who see their son lying in an operating room and now clinging to life," Bloomberg said.
Investigators have recovered three weapons they say were carried by the suspects: a .45-caliber handgun, a 9mm pistol and a Tec-9 automatic pistol. Police were trying to determine where the guns came from, Kelly said.
The second officer, Herman Yan, was in stable condition with chest and forearm wounds. It appeared that his bullet-resistant vest saved his life, police said.
Information about whether Woods had a lawyer was not immediately available Tuesday.
The officers were shot around 2:30 a.m. Monday in Brooklyn when they pulled over the SUV outside a day care center.
Cameras captured grainy images of the confrontation and showed three men ducking into a driveway next to a building after ditching the stolen vehicle a few blocks away, police said. The three guns were discovered behind the building, and investigators also determined the SUV and the plates from a second vehicle had been stolen from a car dealership on Long Island.
Associated Press writer Hope Yen in Washington contributed to this report.
