Fortunately, none of the officers wounded during the gun battle in Sheepshead Bay was seriously hurt. But the suspect fired at them with an illegal gun, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly say that's just not acceptable.
The last officer who remained hospitalized, Detective Michael Keenan, was released on Tuesday. Detective Kenneth Ayala was released earlier Monday. He was shot in the thigh and foot during the incident Sunday.
"We have more guns than people in America," Bloomberg said. "I don't know what it's going to take for Congress to start protecting police officers and citizens, as opposed to the gun lobby. But we're going to continue our fight to convince them to act. If that means that we have to start calling senators and members of Congress in the middle of the night, when we get these shooting calls, maybe we should just start doing that."
Bloomberg expressed outrage after Ayala, Detective Michael Keenan, Officer Matthew Granahan and Captain Al Pizzano four officers were shot early Sunday morning.
The officers were responding to a situation in which suspect Nakwon Foxworth, 33, was reportedly holding his girlfriend and baby hostage after an armed confrontation with a mover.
Foxworth was shot, along with the four officers, when police stormed the apartment.
Authorities reportedly found a cache of illegal guns and ammunition at the scene.
Foxworth served 10 years in prison and could not legally possess firearms. Kelly told the Daily News he is tired of the illegal gun situation, which he said is turning the city "into a shooting gallery."
Now, he and Bloomberg are calling on Congress to do more to enforce federal gun laws.
"All the shootings have a disgraceful fact in common," Bloomberg said. "All were committed with illegal guns that came from out of state."
Foxworth is in critical but stable condition at Kings County Hospital. He is charged with attempted murder, assault on a police officer, criminal possession of a weapon and menacing.
Bloomberg says eight members of the NYPD have been shot in the last four months. The last deadly shooting was in December, when Officer Peter Figoski was killed.
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