'TERRIBLE TRAGEDY'
Nov 28, 2005 2:30 pm US/Eastern
(1010 WINS) (NEW YORK) A police officer who was shot in the heart early Monday during a car chase in Brooklyn ignored the wound and helped try to catch the suspected shooter before dying later at the hospital, authorities said.
The officer, Dillon Stewart, 35, of Elmont, Long Island, was killed despite wearing a bulletproof vest. One round entered the officer's armpit, missing the protective plating "by no more than a quarter of an inch,'' Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at a news conference.
Stewart, a five-year veteran who was married with two children, "showed remarkable tenacity and courage in pursuing his assailant,'' Kelly said.
Detectives were questioning a 27-year-old suspect described as the owner of a car that started the chase by running a red light. A 9mm handgun, believed to be the murder weapon, was discovered ditched outside a Brooklyn home where he was captured after a massive manhunt, police said.
The incident began at about 2:50 a.m. when Stewart and his partner, Paul Lipka, were on patrol in the East Flatbush neighborhood while in uniform and in an unmarked car. The officers spotted a 1990 Infiniti speed through a red light and Stewart, who was driving, gave chase.
At one point, the car circled back and pulled alongside the police vehicle, and the motorist opened fire.
While trying "to evade the officers,'' Kelly said, ``the suspect fired at least five times at the officers, shooting outside the passenger side window of his own car and striking Officer Stewart in the chest.''
With Stewart still in pursuit, the suspect sped to a basement garage on East 21st street about two blocks away. Lipka and another backup officer shot at the Infiniti as a metal gate at the garage entrance rolled down; police believe the driver escaped on foot by climbing out a window.
"It was at this point that Stewart, who had left the police car, realized he had been shot,'' the commissioner said, and the officers rushed him to the hospital.
Following surgery, Stewart's heart stopped beating, and doctor's attempted to revive him for over an hour.
"Despite the heroic efforts of surgeons,'' Kelly said, "Officer Stewart died at 8:40 this morning.''
Stewart was the first officer killed in the city in the line of duty this year, police said. James McNaughton, an NYPD transit bureau officer and staff sergeant with the 306th Military Police Battalion, was killed by a sniper in Iraq on Aug 2.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg called Stewart's death a "terrible tragedy for New York City,'' and asked New Yorkers to pray for the officer's family.
Neighbors of slain police officer Stewart said the policeman was a nice guy. One neighbor, Frantz Racine, who also lives in Elmont, said he knew something was wrong when unmarked police cars were on the block early Monday morning.
Racine said he was shocked when he heard the news. He adds he didn't know his neighbor was a police officer.
Racine said the Stewarts moved into the neighborhood about two years ago.
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