Local cops shot after chase

Two NYPD officers from Nassau County were shot while in pursuit of a suspect in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn early last Saturday morning.

Andrew Yurkiw, 29, a Wantagh resident and an Elmont native, and William Reddin, 33, a Malverne native who now lives in Lynbrook, heard gunshots near the intersection of Quincy Street and Malcolm X Boulevard. As they approached a suspect, Jamal Funes, 34, he pointed a gun at them and then fled in a Nissan Maxima. The officers followed, and radioed for backup.

The suspect, driving the wrong way on Malcolm X. Boulevard, rammed into a patrol car at the corner of Lexington Avenue. After the collision, at around 3:20 a.m., officers fired at him, striking him several times, and both Yurkiw and Reddin were hit as well. Police later found a .357 revolver with five spent shell casings in the front seat of Funes’s vehicle.

Yurkiw was hit in the chest, but the bullet did not penetrate his bulletproof vest. Reddin was shot in the hip. Both were treated at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, and both are expected to make full recoveries, police said. Yurkiw was released from the hospital on Sunday and Reddin was released Monday afternoon.

At a press conference on Saturday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio expressed his relief that the officers’ injuries weren’t more serious. “Thank God both these officers will be making a full recovery, and thank God for what they do for us,” he told reporters after he visited Yurkiw and Reddin at the hospital. “This morning is a reminder of the important, dangerous and crucial work that our police officers do.”

According to the mayor, Reddin is a nine-year veteran of the NYPD, and on the day before the shooting he had been involved in another gun-related arrest. “Here’s a guy in his hospital bed, obviously in some pain,” de Blasio said. “But very proud of the fact that just the day before, he got another gun off the street.” The mayor said that Reddin, a father of two, and his wife are expecting a third child.