Officer Juan Pichardo left Jacobi Medical Medical Center in the Bronx, where he had been treated for a gunshot wound in the thigh.
The shooting was part of a night of mayhem for three New York City police officers who were wounded in two separate shooting incidents in Brooklyn and the Bronx on Thursday.
The Brooklyn shooting, which left a suspect dead, took place at about 7:30 p.m. at the Fort Hamilton Parkway subway station at 62nd Street, according to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
An hour earlier in the Bronx, Officer Pichardo was working off-duty at his family's car dealership when two men, one armed with a handgun, entered the dealership while two other men waited outside in a getaway car, Kelly said.
After the two feigned interest in buying a car, one of them pulled out a .380 handgun and ordered Pichardo and an employee onto the floor in a back office and started to ransack the place.
"A few minutes after the robbery, Officer Pichardo stood up and grabbed the gunman, who fired, striking the officer in the right thigh," Kelly said.
Although wounded, Pichardo and the other employee wrestled the gunman to the ground and disarmed him. His accomplice fled in the getaway car with the two others, but they were stopped a short distance away and arrested.
The suspects were identified as 22-year-old Jeffrey Okine of Mount Vernon; Marquis Daniels, 23, of the Bronx; Tyquez Harrell, 22, of Brooklyn; and 25-year-old Rayshaun Jones. They are facing various charges.
Kelly said Pichardo had recognized the gunman as a member of a Bronx robbery crew. The suspect's gun was reported stolen from North Carolina in December 2012, he said.
"Tonight, we're just grateful that these three officers will be going home to their families," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, adding that the officers were in "good moods."
For more on the Brooklyn shooting, CLICK HERE.
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