Standoff leads to shots fired by FBI agent in Brooklyn, 1 in custody
PROSPECT LEFFERTS GARDENS, Brooklyn (WABC) -- Shots were fired as FBI agents took a man wanted for questioning in a 2017 Queens homicide into custody early Friday morning.
It followed an hours-long standoff in an apartment on Maple Street in the Prospect Lefferts Gardens section of Brooklyn.
Authorities say the agents initially spotted the suspect, identified as 54-year-old Wilbert Bryant, holding a dark object in his hand. It was initially believed to be a gun, but officials say it was actually a knife.
Bryant allegedly went into an apartment on the third floor and refused to open the door. An FBI agent fired two shots, but no one was injured.
The incident, which started around 5:15 a.m., ended when the suspect emerged from the apartment building on a stretcher three hours later at 8:15 a.m.
Bryant was not struck by the gunfire, but he was taken to the hospital to be checked out.
"The arrest warrant was for a murder in New York City back in 2017," NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said. "During the course of that execution, an FBI agent did discharge a firearm. The individual was taken into custody. He was not shot struck by that discharge, and that's ongoing, still very preliminary."
Investigators are still looking into whether Bryant also fired shots, but at this point, he was only found to be in possession of a knife and no gun has been recovered. The investigation is ongoing.
It may take some time to get information from the FBI on what actually happened, because the public information officers are on furlough due to the government shutdown.
However, they were on the scene and still working to investigate the incident.
Bryant is one of five suspects named in a superseding indictment in the October 23, 2017, murder of a Queens business owner in front of his son, who was also pistol whipped.
The murder was the culmination in a string of harassment against 64-year-old Hani Kasem for a $50,000 loan he used to start his business that had not yet been repaid.
If convicted in the 2017 case, Bryant faces 10 years behind bars.
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