A pair of NYPD cops involved in a “friendly fire” shooting that left one officer and two bystanders wounded remain on active duty while the incident is investigated, the department said Monday.
While Big Apple cops can be placed on modified duty following officer-involved shootings, the two unnamed officers have not been placed on any restrictive detail while the probe is under way, police said.
“There is no change in duty status,” a spokesman for the department said in an email. “The investigation remains ongoing by the Force Investigation Division.”
Compounding the chaos surrounding the incident, police also launched a manhunt for a weirdo who made off with the knife used to attack the cops at a Brooklyn subway station — which sparked the shooting.
The wild Sunday afternoon incident at a Brownsville subway station came as a deranged fare beater lunged at cops with a knife on an L train, prompting the two officers to open fire and strike the 38-year-old suspect — with one of the officers and two straphangers also wounded in the barrage.
The cop and the two bystanders are expected to survive.
The condition of the suspect, identified by sources as career criminal Derrell Mickles, is unclear.
The incident unfolded shortly after 3 p.m. at the Sutter Avenue station, when the two cops allegedly saw Mickles jump the turnstile and followed him to the platform.
“I’m going to kill you if you don’t stop following me,” Mickles allegedly told the officers.
Both officers fired Tasers at Mickles when he became more hostile and refused to comply, but both charges failed to stop him and he allegedly lunged at one of the cops with the knife, NYPD Chief of Department Jeffery Maddrey said.
That’s when both opened fire, getting off nine shots between them, according to sources.
As they handcuffed Mickles, the cops realized not only that the suspect had been hit, but also that one of the officers was struck in the armpit and two straphangers had been grazed, police said.
Asked about the circumstances, Maddrey told reporters at a briefing Sunday that “everyone that was struck this afternoon we believe was by our officers.”
Under NYPD guidelines officers are authorized to use deadly force if there is a potentially deadly threat against them or civilians in the vicinity.
However, one law enforcement source said it is routine for cops who discharge their weapons to be placed on modified duty during the course of an investigation.
“I think it was a bad shoot,” the source said. “I would modify them just to be safe.”
Meanwhile, the NYPD released a wanted poster for the unidentified crook who stole the knife allegedly used by Mickles to attack the two officers.
The man is seen wearing a light blue baseball cap, a long sleeve shirt with a pattern and blue jeans.
Additional reporting by Jack Morphet and Hannah Fierick