NYPD Helicopter landed in Prospect Park / COP SHOT

witch-king wrote: if only bloomberg had rushed to the side of sean bell.

pitu wrote: Prospect between 4th and 3rd Aves (the block before the BQE entrance) was closed off and full of police vehicles late this morning - what was that?

Cop's husband questioned in shooting of officer
BY HERBERT LOWE
Newsday Staff Writer

February 11, 2007

A pregnant New York City police officer and her husband were being questioned after a shooting that left another cop seriously injured early yesterday in Brooklyn, authorities said.

The wounded officer was shot once in the left upper back above his bulletproof vest -- he had not yet received the Police Department's newest, better-protecting model -- and was expected to make a full recovery, officials said.

"You got a beef?" the husband yelled from a vehicle before firing two gunshots at an unmarked car occupied by the injured officer, Andrew Suarez, and three other plainclothes anti-crime unit members, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at a news conference.

The incident in Park Slope began about 4:10 a.m. when the officers exchanged an uneasy glance with the husband and another man in a white Acura sport utility vehicle, Kelly said. After firing his gun, the husband and his passenger sped away from the scene at Sixth Avenue and Prospect Place, chased only by 13 bullets fired by Suarez' colleagues, the commissioner said.

"As far as we can tell, our officers acted exactly as they should have," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who joined Kelly at the news conference at New York Methodist Hospital, where Suarez was recovering.

A couple of hours later, police found the bullet-ridden vehicle being driven by its owner at Prospect and Fourth Avenues, about 17 blocks from the shooting scene, Kelly said.

Police sources identified the owner as Jacqueline Melendez-Rivera, 37, a 13-year veteran who is assigned to the 81st Precinct.

The car that she was driving, a 2002 white Acura MDX, is registered to her address at 33 St. Marks Ave.

Soon, police raided that brownstone and took into custody two men, including the husband, who neighbors identified as Jose Rivera. The identity of the other man was not immediately known.

Police would not identify the two men taken into custody. But neighbors said Melendez-Rivera is married to Jose Rivera, 31, a hotel worker. Rivera was released on parole in 2002 after serving five years in prison for an assault conviction in Brooklyn, court records show.

Police quickly sought search warrants for the Acura and the brownstone, and about 5 p.m. revealed they had found a loaded 9-mm Ruger semiautomatic handgun in the brownstone's backyard.

"We don't know if this is actually the firearm" used to shoot Suarez, a police source said, noting that ballistics testing was pending.

Kelly said earlier that the female officer's two registered weapons were found in her duty locker.

The bullet that struck Suarez, a member of the 78th Precinct who joined the department in July 2003, traveled from his left upper back to under his neck, where it remains, Kelly said.

His colleagues used their unmarked car to transport him to the hospital, the commissioner said.

"Thank God it wasn't any worse than it was," said Bloomberg, adding that Suarez was in good spirits and that they joked and laughed together in front of the officer's parents and girlfriend.

Suarez was wearing a bulletproof vest issued to him when he graduated from the Police Academy, Kelly said. It does not have the extra body coverage that police say could have saved Dillon Stewart, the officer killed by a bullet that struck him in his armpit Nov. 28, 2005.

The city allotted $12 million for the new vests last May. The plan then was to hand them out to rookies who graduated in July. Another 18,000 cops using a lesser model were to get the new vest after that, but Suarez had not yet received one, Kelly said.

Neighbors said Melendez-Rivera has three sons: two of them, Danny, 10, and Michael, 9, by her ex-husband, Daniel Melendez, and another, a 3-year-old whose name was unknown, with Rivera.

Melendez-Rivera and Rivera are expecting another child in May, said neighbor Millagros Santiago, 58.

"Bottom line, she's a good lady, a good mother, a good wife," Santiago said. "She a beautiful person."

This story was reported by staff writer Herbert Lowe and by T.W. Farnam and Matthew Nestel. It was written by Lowe.

Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.

witch-king wrote: i wonder if the police made jacqueline melendez-rivera do the perp walk.

DAVID B. CARUSO for AP wrote: Melendez-Rivera, who was suspended from duty, was arrested on charges of hindering prosecution, tampering with evidence, obstructing governmental administration and unlawful possession of marijuana, police said.

Her 31-year-old husband was arrested on charges of attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment, defacing a firearm, tampering with evidence, menacing and criminal possession of marijuana, police said.