NYPD Officers In Bronx Shooting Expected To Live

Two plainclothes New York City police officers were involved in a shooting in the Bronx Monday night after responding to an armed robbery. According to CNN, the two NYPD officers were shot multiple times, but are expected to survive. Meanwhile, authorities are still searching for the suspects, who reportedly fled the scene on foot before stealing a car.

According to a statement from the NYPD, the two plainclothes officers were part of a group of five cops who responded to the robbery of a Bronx grocery store Monday night. The officers reportedly approached the suspects after they entered a nearby Chinese restaurant, and the suspects promptly opened fire. One 30-year-old officer was shot in the left arm and lower back, while a 38-year-old officer was wounded in the chest. The 30-year-old officer was listed in critical condition as of Tuesday morning, but is expected to live. The 38-year-old officer was stabilized, NYPD said.

The police department is currently investigating the incident, and has opened a search for the suspects. NYPD added that one of the suspects may have been wounded by a gunshot during the gunfight.

The officer-involved shooting occurred just hours after de Blasio, along with Police Commissioner William Bratton, announced at a press conference that crime in New York City dropped 4.6 percent in 2014 from 2013, with 2,600 fewer robberies taking place. Homicides in the city also reached its lowest point since 1993, de Blasio said.

On Monday, de Blasio also publicly addressed the ongoing feud between the NYPD and City Hall for the first time, condemning the actions of the rank-and-file officers who staged protests at the funerals of slain officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. Those two officers were killed while on-duty in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn on Dec. 20 in an ambush attack that purposely targeted police.

The mayor said those officers who turned their backs to the mayor during his eulogies were "disrespectful" to not only the families of the slain officers, but also to the city of New York:

[T]hose individuals who took certain actions this last week – or last two weeks, really – they were disrespectful to the families involved. That's the bottom line. They were disrespectful to the families who had lost their loved one. And I can't understand why anyone would do such a thing in a context like that. I think it just defies a lot of what we all feel is the right and decent thing to do when you're dealing with a family in pain. I also think they were disrespectful to the people of this city – who, in fact, honor the work of the NYPD. I can't tell you how extraordinary the outpouring of feeling that I've experienced from New Yorkers of every kind.

Bratton, who issued an internal memo to the police force last Friday warning against another public protest display at Liu's funeral, agreed with the mayor during Monday's press conference:

I had concerns about what I had witnessed at the previous [Ramos'] funeral. And so, that was the reason for issuing the memo that was read at all roll calls prior to the funeral. And I hope that it helped to encourage many officers not to engage in the actions of the few hundred out of the excess of 25,000 police officers who were there. I share the mayor's concern about the idea of what is effectively a labor action being taken in the middle of a funeral, where we are honoring the death of two police officers.

"I just don't understand it," Bratton told reporters. "I don't get it."

The police commissioner added that he was "very disappointed" in those who did not take his memo to heart. "At the same time," Bratton said, "I compliment the 20,000-plus who did what you'd expect at a funeral."

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