NEW YORK, Nov. 5 (UPI) — One New York Police Department sergeant was killed and another sergeant was wounded while responding to a home invasion.
Paul Tuozzolo, 41, was shot and killed and 30-year-old Emmanuel Kwo was wounded in a shootout while pursuing a home invasion suspect Friday afternoon, according to NBC New York.
“The city is in mourning and the family of the NYPD is in mourning, particularly all the men and the women of the 43rd Precinct, who lost a good man, a man who committed his life to protecting all of us,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said of Tuozzolo, a 19-year veteran of the force.
NYPD Commissioner Jimmy O’Neill said police received a call at about 2:45 p.m. to say an armed man, identified as 35-year-old Manuel Rosales, had broken into his estranged wife’s apartment.
Rosales held his wife, their 3-year-old son, a 13-year-old child and a 50-year-old woman hostage for several hours before leaving the home in a red Jeep, allowing the 50-year-old to call police with a description of his vehicle according to CNN.
Police located the vehicle in front of a storage warehouse about a half-mile away from the home, where Rosales began firing a 45-caliber, semi-automatic handgun at the two officers.
Officers shot and killed Rosales, who had been arrested 17 times in Suffolk County and had also been at the apartment the night before, according to a 911 call reporting a domestic incident on Thursday.
During the shootout, Tuozzolo was shot in the head and a bullet grazed Kwo’s leg.
Both sergeants were taken to the hospital where Tuozzolo died and Kwo, an NYPD officer for nine years, was held in stable condition.
Tuozzolo is survived by his wife and two young children. De Blasio promised the city and the NYPD “would be them for as long as they needed help for years and years to come,” as he told them of the news.
“I always talk about what a great job this is, but there’s nothing worse than a day like today,” O’Neill said.
