It was a nightmare hour of bloodshed for the NYPD.
In barely more than 60 minutes last night, three city cops were shot in two separate incidents.
In the first, off-duty cop Juan Pichardo, 34, was shot in the leg as he stopped armed bandits from robbing his used-car dealership in The Bronx, said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
A short time later, plainclothes Transit cops Michael Levay, 27, and Lukasz Kozicki, 32, were struck by bullets fired by a gun-toting thug whom they had spotted walking between subway cars in Brooklyn, Kelly added. Officers respond after a fellow officer was shot in The Bronx Thursday.
The subway gunman, who had a lengthy rap sheet, was shot dead.
The three wounded officers are expected to survive.
“In recent weeks, we’ve heard some people say that the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” Mayor Bloomberg said last night. “But sometimes the good guys get shot – and sometimes, they are killed.” “Tonight, thank God, three good guys – three New York City police officers, who acted heroically – are going to make it.”
The violence began at 6:30 p.m., when Pichardo fought back as two men held up the Boston Road Auto Mall in Bronxwood, which is owned by his family.
“He was trying to sell the people a car and they try to stick him up,” said a co-worker who gave his name as Brian. “For the new year to start like this, it’s not right. Nobody deserves this.”
The two perps barged into the dealership as it was closing after feigning interest in buying a red Altima on the lot, sources said.
They used plastic handcuffs to tie Pichardo and a coworker, sources added.
While waving a Bryco .380 handgun in Pichardo’s face, the thugs forced him and the other employee to the floor of a small back office, demanded the combination to the dealership safe and took cash from the cop, sources added.
Somehow, Pichardo managed to grab hold of one perp and began struggling with him. The man then shot Pichardo in the right thigh.
“I was in the bathroom when I heard a shot. I thought it was a car tire burst. It sounded so loud,” said Alicia Edwards, an 18-year-old student who lives nearby.
Officers Juan Pichardo, Lukasz Kozicki and Michael Levay were wounded by gunfire Thursday.
Despite his wound, Pichardo wrestled the gunman to the ground and handcuffed him with help from his colleague, sources said. He also disarmed the thug.
The accomplice ran off and hopped into a getaway car occupied by two other suspects. The vehicle, a white Impala with Oregon license plates, was stopped nearby and the trio was placed under arrest, police said.
Pichardo, a nine-year veteran and married father of three, was reported in stable condition at Jacobi Medical Center.
In Brooklyn, violence broke out at 7:32 p.m., when Levay and Kozicki, assigned to an anti-crime unit, were shot on a Manhattan-bound N train.
The cops had seen a man illegally walking between cars and attempted to stop him as the train arrived at Fort Hamilton Parkway in Bay Ridge, police added.
They asked for his ID and thought the man was going for his wallet — but instead he whipped a 9mm Taurus gun from his waistband and started blasting, police said.
Scared straphangers scattered as the perp and cops traded bullets, according to witness Jonathan Michael, 31.
“People were running out. It was loud,” he said. “The whole train was screaming.”
A passenger on the car sustained a graze wound to the leg during the shootout.
The gunman was killed by Levay’s return fire, police said, and left dead on the platform.
Kozicki was hit in each of his upper thighs and once in the groin. Levay was hit in his lower back, which was protected by his bulletproof vest.
A witness said that the assailant saw the officer’s vest and intentionally aimed low, police added.
Both cops were treated at Lutheran Hospital.
The dead gunman had prior arrests in New York, for assault and a stabbing, and was once caught with a knife while jumping a turnstile, sources said.
He also has a rap sheet in California, sources added.
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