Thread: 50 Shots in Harlem, One Dead and 6 Hurt

gust 8, 2010, 12:15 pm

After 50 Shots in Harlem, One Dead and 6 Hurt, Including 2 Officers

By TRYMAINE LEE AND COLIN MOYNIHAN

mod edit for The New York Times

Police officers investigated on Lenox Avenue at 144th Street hours after a shooting at a cookout in Harlem on Sunday.

Updated 3:05 p.m. | A wild shootout in Harlem early Sunday between police officers and a gunman left one person dead and six people wounded, including two of the officers — one of whom was struck by another officer’s bullet, the police said.

The wounds to the two officers were considered minor. The officer who had been shot by his colleague had been shot in the left side of his chest, Paul J. Browne, the police department’s chief spokesman, said on Sunday afternoon. The round was stopped by the officer’s bullet-resistant vest.

In all, 50 shots were fired; all but four came from the officers’ weapons, Mr. Browne said.

The first shots rang out about 3 a.m. at a block party on Lenox Avenue near West 144th Street, where police officers had been dispatched because of a report of an argument between two men at the party.

While the police were at the scene, one of the men, Angel Alvarez, 23, pulled out a .38 caliber revolver and fatally shot the other man, Luis Soto, 22, the police said. Then, the police said, Mr. Alvarez turned and fired at a group of police officers who had approached.

Four or five police officers shot back, firing 46 rounds, striking Mr. Alvarez several times, the police said. Mr. Alvarez was listed in critical condition at Harlem Hospital Center, the police said. The police recovered a handgun they believed to have been fired by Mr. Alvarez at the scene.

Two officers were also wounded during the shootout. One of the officers suffered a graze wound to the hand, the police said. That officer, Alfredo Vargas, 28, was treated at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital and later released.

The officer who was shot in the chest, Michael Tedeschi, 36, was listed in stable condition and was expected to be released from NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital later on Sunday, according to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who, along with Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, spoke at a news conference at the hospital.

Three other civilians suffered minor gunshot injuries; a police spokesman said it was unclear if they were shot by Mr. Alvarez or by the police.

The police said that ballistic evidence found at the scene indicates that there was more than one civilian shooter at the party. Shell casings found at the scene do not match the guns fired by any of the police officers or by Mr. Alvarez, the police said.

The shooting on Lenox Avenue was the second shooting at a block party early Sunday. The police said that at about 12:30 a.m., at a block party at West 149th Street and Seventh Avenue, a man was shot in the buttocks. That man was listed in stable condition at Harlem Hospital.

The police do not believe the two shootings were related.

At the news conference, the mayor said the two wounded officers were lucky to be alive, but blamed the shooting on illegal guns in the hands of criminals.

“Two police officers shot, fortunately not seriously. But there but for the grace of God it could have been much worse,â€