NYPD Officers Shooting Dog Hit by Bullets

Three NYPD officers and a civilian were injured by ricocheting bullets after cops opened fire on a pit bull in an Upper East Side housing project last night, police said.

The wild scene unfolded when six officers from the 19th Precinct and Manhattan North task force responded to a call of an assault with a gun in progress at the Stanley Isaacs Houses at 10:30 p.m.

When they knocked on the door of an 11th-floor apartment at 1806 First Ave. at East 93rd Street, a woman who answered sicced the pit bull on the officers, according to NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

The cops opened fire, killing the dog, but three of the officers were hit by fragments of their own bullets or concrete chips.

The woman was struck in her right hand.

All were taken to New York Hospital with minor injuries, Browne said.

The most seriously injured officer was hit below the right eye.

Five people were taken out of the apartment and were being questioned by cops, but no weapons were immediately recovered.

"That apartment has always been trouble. There's something always going on over there," said building resident Frank Lopez.

Another resident, 13-year-old Isiah Marrero, said he recognized one of the injured officers.

"He's real nice. He always works on the block and he always has something nice to say," he said.

Republished with permission of The New York Post.