Gunman wounded in shootout with police

Ed Koch and Mary Manning

Friday, Aug. 20, 1999 | 4:11 a.m.

A man shooting at cars on Industrial Road in the predawn hours today was wounded by Metro Police officers after he fired rounds through a patrol car windshield and hood.

The man was taken to University Medical Center and was in surgery this morning, a hospital spokeswoman said.

A police spokesman said the wound the man suffered during the 5 a.m. shootout at Industrial Road and Tompkins Avenue, a half mile north of Tropicana Avenue, was not life threatening.

Police received a call at 4:53 a.m. from a motorist on a cellular phone. The motorist told police that a man, possibly in his 30s, was shooting at cars, including the motorist's vehicle.

Police declined to identify the type of gun that the man used other than that it was a handgun.

It was not immediately known if the gunman's bullets struck any other cars.

There were no other reports of injuries, police said.

When police arrived at the scene, shots were fired at a patrol car, with one bullet traveling through a windshield and another striking the hood.

Two police officers, a patrolman and a K-9 unit officer, fired at the gunman with semi-automatic handguns, hitting him once, a police spokesman said. It was not immediately known how many rounds the gunman or police had fired.

Authorities closed Industrial Road to traffic, blocking it from Rio Drive to Tropicana Avenue and the Interstate 15 on-ramp.

Commuter traffic on I-15 was backed up from Tompkins to Sahara Avenue because motorists slowed down to take a look at a sea of flashing emergency lights, police said.

Charges are pending. Among them are the possibility of attempted murder of a police officer, police said.

The two officers involved in the shooting were placed on administrative leave, pending an investigation. It is Metro's policy not to release the names of officers involved in shooting incidents for 48 hours.

Metro Police have fatally shot three people since January. In 1998, Metro officers killed three people. In each case, Metro officers were cleared of wrongdoing by a coroner's inquest jury.

There have been four other police-involved shootings this year, according to Metro records. While none of those suspects were hit by police bullets, one of them nevertheless died -- he committed suicide to avoid capture, police said.