By MICHAEL R. SISAK
(AP) — Two New York City police officers on Tuesday shot and killed an off-duty college security officer after he opened fire and wounded them as they responded to a domestic violence call at his home, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said.
Rondell Goppy, 41, walked into his Queens home and started shooting around 12:45 p.m., just minutes after the officers arrived there with a woman who had gone to their police station to report an assault, Shea said.
Officer Christopher Wells, 36, was shot in the leg and needed surgery to repair a fractured femur. Officer Joseph Murphy, 33, was wounded in the hand and also required surgery for his injuries.
Wells, a member of the NYPD since 2007, and Murphy, who joined the force in 2015, were both assigned to the 105th precinct, where the shooting took place.
Shea said a 41-year-old woman who lives at Goppy’s home went to the police station on Tuesday to report a domestic violence incident that happened on Monday night. The officers accompanied the woman back to the home and were there for about six minutes when Goppy came and started firing, Shea said.
Goppy was pronounced dead at the scene. The woman was not injured. The fire department initially reported that its ambulances were responding to a shooting involving two officers and a civilian. The civilian turned out to be Goppy.
Goppy was employed as a peace officer at the City College of New York in Harlem and was licensed to carry firearms. The college’s website lists him as a “Crime Prevention Specialist.”
Shea said Goppy had no criminal record but that there were several domestic violence calls to the home in the past and that police were looking into what came of those cases. A law enforcement official said Goppy had his guns taken away in July but that they were returned in September.
Two of Goppy’s guns were found at the scene and a third was recovered at a different location, Shea said. One of the guns was found under his body, according to the law enforcement official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.
Mayor Bill de Blasio was briefed on the shooting and visited the hospital where the officers were being treated. The shootout happened in a residential neighborhood near John F. Kennedy International Airport.
