Two New York City police officers and a 19-year-old man were shot and wounded early Monday during a confrontation and were hospitalised, officials said.
Mayor Eric Adams said one of the officers was saved by his bullet-resistant vest.
The officers pursued the man while he was driving a motorized scooter the wrong way on a street in Queens around 1:40 am, Police Commissioner Edward Caban said at a news conference.
A gun was recovered from the scene. Adams held up a vest and pointed to it at the news conference. “This is a bullet hole,” he said. “Because of this vest, a young officer is going home.”
The man had no prior arrests in the city but is a suspect in several robbery patterns in Queens, police said, adding that the motorised scooter was not registered. It was not immediately known if he had a lawyer.
Robberies in which people on motorised scooters snatch cellphones and other items are on the rise in the city, police said.
