Lieutenant Gary Abrahall, who wounded a man who shot two police officers and fired upon him on Tuesday, said he wasn't a hero, "The two cops that took the bullets, they're the heroes." He added that Raul Nunez, armed with an officer's gun, "was coming full steam. Right at me. Popping off rounds ... . He obviously knew I was the police."
Abrahall had been in plainclothes, as were Officers Jason Maass and Shane Farina, who were wounded when they stopped Nunez for fare beating at the 21st Street and 41st Avenue subway station in Queens. Abrahall initially spotted Nunez using a student Metrocard and was suspicious because Nunez looked well over 30, so he radioed to Maass and Farina who were further in the station. They moved to arrest him, but Nunez struggled and managed to grab one of the officers' guns that came loose.
Nunez shot both cops in the back: A bullet grazed Maass's back and bullet fragments entered at his pelvis while Farina was hit twice in the sternum and fractured two ribs. Maass was released from the hospital, but Farina, whose liver was also hit, remains in the hospital, in stable but critical condition, after surgery. Police Commissioner Kelly visited Farina and said that he "feel lucky" and "seemed to be in good spirits."
Nunez was arraigned on attempted murder charges in his hospital room at Bellevue; he was shot four times by Abrahall and is in fair condition. Nunez indicated that he was resisting arrest because he had been deported back to the Dominican Republic in 2001 and did not want to go back. The NY Times reports that police take scoping out fare beaters seriously: "The police catch roughly 7,000 people a month trying to avoid paying fares; about 400 of them turn out to be the subjects of arrest warrants."
