Rookie NYPD Officer Shoots & Kills Armed Teenager In The Bronx

An NYPD officer who graduated from the police academy last month shot and killed an armed suspect in the Bronx last night.

A police spokeswoman said that two male officers were on routine foot patrol in the 40th Precinct near East 151st Street and Cortland Avenue at around 3 a.m. when they heard shots being fired in the immediate area. The spokeswoman said that the officers saw a black male holding a firearm, and the suspect then turned towards the officers. After being directed to drop the weapon, the spokesman said, the suspect refused to comply, and one of the officers discharged a single round, striking the suspect, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

The officers were removed to Jacobi Hospital and treated for tinnitus. The suspect's name and age have not yet been released.

The NYPD spokeswoman could not provide many details regarding the incident, as the investigation is ongoing, but did confirm that the officer who discharged his firearm was a recent graduate of the police academy.

Operation Impact, the tactic employed by NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly in which new officers are assigned to the most crime-ridden areas of the city, was first instituted in 2003, and has been credited with reducing the city's crime rate. Opponents of the strategy argue that inexperienced officers alienate communities, and that more seasoned cops should be patrolling high crime areas.

We'll update as more details become available.

[UPDATE] The suspect has been identified as 14-year-old Shaaliver Douse. The NYPD has issued a release on the incident, noting that the two officers saw Douse pursuing and firing his gun at another man. Douse was hit once in his jaw. An Astra A100- 9mm was recovered by police at the scene. The two officers involved, ages 26 and 27, both graduated from the academy last month.

Douse, who had prior run-ins with the police, was charged for attempted murder this spring after he allegedly shot another teenager in the shoulder. But the serious charges were dropped, and prosecutors instead pursued a weapons charge.