Investigation continues after suspect killed in police-involved shooting in Queens

JAMAICA, N.Y. (WABC) -- Authorities are continuing to investigate a police-involved shooting that left a man dead in Queens.

Just before 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, police responded to a report of a man firing a gun at the Hillside Inn, at the corner of 168 Street and Hillside Avenue.

According to the New York City Police Department, when they arrived police found that 30-year-old Jonathan Efraim had discharged a firearm inside the bar, then fled north on 168th Street toward Highland Avenue.

When police found the suspect at 168th Street and Highland, they shouted "Police, don't move!," according to the NYPD. Officers chased him toward 168th Place and Highland Avenue, where the suspect stopped and fired at the officers.

He kept running southbound on 168th Place, then stopped and pointed his weapon at the officers a second time, police said. Two uniformed officers fired five times toward the suspect, hitting him in the left arm pit and torso.

Efraim was taken to Jamaica Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The two officers who discharged their weapons were taken to North Shore Medical Center, for treatment of tinnitus.

Early Thursday, police were still on the scene and shell casings remained on the street.

A 9mm handgun was recovered at the scene.

No officers were injured.

Stephen Davis, the NYPD's top spokesman, said preliminary findings suggest the shooting appeared to be justified.

The police have responded to multiple calls involving Efraim at his Staten Island address from November 1998 to September 2014, police said. He also had been arrested multiple times in New York and Woodbridge, New Jersey, on charges ranging from assault to criminal mischief and menacing on a police officer.

Surveillance video shows Efraim walking into the Queens bar Wednesday where he stayed for about an hour, sitting next to a regular customer and striking up a conversation, Davis said. The bartender apparently sensed that the regular was uncomfortable, interjecting by telling him his cab was outside, Davis said.

That's when Efraim shouted, "No one's going anywhere!" before firing a single shot into the bar's ceiling, Davis said.

Efraim served in the Marine Corps from June 2004 to March 2007, police said. The Marines didn't immediately respond to a request for his service record.

"Right now we are trying to find out exactly what spurred this on," said NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce. "We are going into his past right now. We do know he was in the military at some juncture, we are speaking to his family. We also know he has some incidents of psychiatric problems, right now we are trying that as we move forward."

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)