A NYPD officer was shot and wounded and a robbery suspect was killed in an exchange of gunfire outside a busy Queens shopping mall Tuesday night, according to police sources.
The officer was responding to a robbery in progress near the Jamaica Center, on 161st Street, when gunfire erupted between cops and the suspect and sent hundreds of New Yorkers running for safety, the sources said.
The cop was shot in the leg and rushed to Jamaica Hospital in stable condition.
The suspect — who was reportedly wanted for other robberies — was shot multiple times and pronounced dead at the scene, sources said.
A mom who was picking up pizza nearby said she heard “a loud bang” and initially believed the noise came from a construction site or a car backfiring — until three more shots followed and the busy block quickly erupted into chaos.
“It was followed by three more loud bangs and I said ‘Oh, those are gunshots and I need to run,’” Jennifer Wilson said.
“So I looked around for a second — everyone scattered. We all ran to where we could run to and then the police swooped down and starting blocking [the street] off.”
She was left shaken by the gunfire and couldn’t immediately return home since her car was on the other side of the taped-off crime scene.
“I had an appointment up here, I’m on my way home to my children with dinner, with pizza and it’s just really scary. It’s very, very scary, very unsettling, very disturbing.”
Wilson said hundreds of people ran for their lives after the gunshots rang out.
“Jamaica Avenue is busy. This is the busiest street in all of Queens and everybody’s just walking, going about their business, probably on their way home like me and [we] all just scattered like roaches,” she said. “It was madness. It was really crazy.”
Dozens of cops swarmed the scene of the shooting and the suspect’s body was left in “a pile on the ground,” Wilson added.
Mayor Eric Adams was briefed on the shooting and will visit the wounded officer in the hospital later in the night, his press secretary said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for more updates.