Man shot by police in Harlem apartment building arrested before
HARLEM, Manhattan (WABC) -- Authorities are investigating after a man was wounded in a police-involved shooting in Harlem.
The shooting happened shortly before 6 p.m. Tuesday at an apartment building on West 114th Street.
Police responded to a report of a man with a gun. Upon arrival, officers encountered an eyewitness who said 34-year-old Michael Cordero was in a fourth-floor hallway.
According to NYPD Chief of Patrol Rodney Harrison, officers demanded that the man take his hands out of his pockets but he refused to comply and said he had a gun.
Cordero took a shooting stance and pointed an object at the officers, Harrison said. One of the officers fired and struck the suspect in the hip.
Cordero was taken to St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital and is stable. He was found to have a knife in his pocket, but no gun.
Police say they have encountered Cordero in the past and that he has been in trouble before, saying that he had a history of domestic violence.
He was arrested Dec. 19 on charges of banging and kicking on a woman's door and breaking her peephole. In another incident on Dec. 31, he banged on his mom's apartment door and yelled. She told him to leave because she had an order of protection against him.
But some who know him said he is harmless.
"He's a great guy, nothing wrong with him, nothing wrong with him. What they did today was very uncalled for. They have sticks, they have tasers. You don't have to fire upon an individual because they're not there at the moment," Cordero's acquaintance said.
Cordero is expected to recover.
No officers were injured in the incident.
The shooting was captured on one of the officer's body cameras and the video will be reviewed by the NYPD's Force Investigation Division.
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