Police opened fire on a suspected armed robber during a gunfight near a Bronx deli Tuesday but nobody was struck, officials said.
Cops are now trying to determine if the suspect is responsible for at least four bodega robberies in the area beginning at 3 a.m., authorities said.
The officers were responding to a robbery in progress at a bodega near E. 163rd and Fox Sts. in Foxhurst about 10 a.m. when they found the suspect armed with a gun nearby, officials said.
“As they approached the individual, he produced a firearm and fired one round at the officers,” NYPD Chief Kenneth Lehr, the commanding officer of Patrol Borough Bronx, said at a Tuesday afternoon press conference. “One of our officers returned three shots at that individual. The individual then took off and during the course of his flight, he fired two additional rounds at our police officer.”
No one was hit by gunfire before cops apprehended the suspect on Simpson St., about a block and a half from where the incident started, Lehr said.
Charges against the suspect were pending. The man’s gun was recovered, officials said.
“This individual may have been on a spree,” Lehr said. “We’re looking at up to four robberies at this point that he may have committed.”
Two cops were taken to an area hospital to be treated for ringing in the ears, officials said.
The NYPD’s Force Investigations Division was reviewing the incident Tuesday, officials said.
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