Suspect Demetrius Blackwell at his arraignment in Queens County Criminal Court on Sunday. THEODORE PARISIENNE
An NYPD cop shot in the face by a cowardly ex-con was fighting for his life Sunday following a complication during treatment, a police source said.
Officer Brian Moore, 25, received visits from a steady stream of stone-faced brothers in blue at Jamaica Hospital in Queens, where sources said he was in a medically induced coma. Publicly, officials said he remained in critical but stable condition after undergoing emergency surgery.
But a separate police source said the condition of the young cop with five years on the force had grown increasingly dire since the shooting in Queens Village just after 6 p.m. Saturday.
“I heard the officer suffered a brain bleed last night; he isn’t in good shape,” the source said.
A single bullet hit Moore in his cheek and exited the opposite side of his face, police sources said.
“The officer is presently hospitalized in critical condition and is fighting for his life,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said, announcing the charges against the alleged gunman, Demetrius Blackwell, who faces 25 years to life in prison. One of the cops leaving the emergency room where Moore was being treated shook his head and only said “not good” when asked about the officer’s condition.
NYPD Officer Brian Moore was allegedly shot in the face during a traffic stop in Queens on Saturday by Demetrius Blackwell, who has been charged with attempted murder. Facebook
Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch was shaken following a bedside visit with the gravely wounded cop from Massapequa, L.I. “We’re praying that our hero officer comes through, but with any kind of brain injury, it’s difficult to tell,” Lynch said.
As Moore struggled in the hospital, Blackwell, 35, was charged with attempted murder of a police officer, assault and criminal possession of a weapon.
The cretin allegedly told detectives following his arrest, “They call me D. They also call me hell-raiser on the streets.”
About 100 cops packed Blackwell’s arraignment in Queens Criminal Court. The suspect seemed exhausted, and was chained at the ankles as he appeared before Judge Michael Yavinsky. He wore what looked to be a tattered gown. No one in his family attended.
“This was nothing more than a cold-blooded assassination, an assassination of two,” prosecutor Peter McCormack said.
Cops fan out searching for the weapon. DEBBIE EGAN-CHIN
Cops look for the gun allegedly used by Demetrius Blackwell to shoot an undercover cop Brian Moore in the head. DEBBIE EGAN-CHIN
PBA President Pat Lynch said that it is "getting too dangerous on the streets when everything turns into a confrontation." Pictured, an NYPD cop at the scene where Officer Moore was shot. DEBBIE EGAN-CHIN
Friends (r.) of Blackwell with a detective (l.) on Sunday, a day after Blackwell allegedly shot NYPD officer Brian Moore in the face during a traffic stop. DEBBIE EGAN-CHIN
A women (center), who identified herself as a family friend of Blackwell, was waiting to get back into her house but couldn't because police are searching it. DEBBIE EGAN-CHIN
Meanwhile, scores of cops continued an intense search for the gun the shooter used in Queens Village. A police van drove through the streets with a loudspeaker offering a $5,000 reward for information about the shooting.
Cops were ransacking the home where the suspected gunman fled after the shooting. A woman who lives in the house waited outside, horrified at the violence but frustrated by the aggressive search for the weapon.
“My house is a junkyard. There’s paint on the floor,” said the woman, who refused to give her name. “Now I have to be escorted to my own home. It’s so frustrating.”
Moore was driving an unmarked police car when he and partner Erik Jansen, 30, both on-duty but in plainclothes, pulled up behind Blackwell, whom they had spotted “adjusting an object in his waistband,” said Police Commissioner Bill Bratton.
Moore identified himself as a police officer and asked, “Do you have something in your waistband?” a source said.
Blackwell responded: “Yeah, I got something,” pulled his gun and fired two to three shots into the car at the corner of 212th St. and 104th Road, hitting Moore in the face, the source said.
A woman, who lives in the house Demetrius Blackwell fled to, said she was with him when he was arrested in front of her house. She refused to give her name and said she was a friend of Blackwell. DEBBIE EGAN-CHIN
Blackwell fled into this house in Queens, and was arrested in front of it a short time later. DEBBIE EGAN-CHIN
The woman who lives in the house where Blackwell fled said she heard the gunshots.
“When I came outside, all I heard (the officer) saying . . . ‘Partner, please stay with me.’ I saw him pick up his radio and call it in,” she said.
Cops nabbed Blackwell, who has nine prior arrests, including two for assaulting officers, at the home about 90 minutes after the attack.
Andre Tucker, 26, who also lives at the house where Blackwell was busted, said the suspect was one cool customer — hiding in plain sight just feet from the crime scene.
“(Blackwell) was hanging out for an hour and a half, smoking cigarettes and talking like everything is normal,” Tucker said.
He, Blackwell and others stood in the front yard gawking at the growing manhunt until cops ordered them all to go inside.
Officer Moore was in critical but stable condition after undergoing surgery at Jamaica Hospital, following the attack in Queens Village on Saturday. THEODORE PARISIENNE
When cops finally zeroed in on Blackwell, they made the other six occupants of the house come out one by one. A 5-month-old baby was also in the house, Tucker recalled.
“Demetrius never came out. . . . When he came out, he was handcuffed,” Tucker said.
Blackwell, a cousin of former Giants cornerback Kory Blackwell, went to prison on an attempted murder conviction after firing into a car in July 2000 following a robbery. He was released from the Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate Dannemora in June 2008.
Blackwell was also wanted by authorities on a criminal mischief charge stemming from an incident last November in which he threw bricks at the windows of a house while toting a gun, police said.
Moore was the fifth NYPD officer shot since December. Two of the victims, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, were assassinated by the same cop-hating madman.
Moore’s father and uncle are both retired NYPD sergeants. The young cop’s neighbors in Massapequa prayed for his recovery.
“My reaction to any bad news is to be optimistic,” said Rory Hedels, 32, who grew up across the street from Moore. “I hope he’s going to be OK.”
With Rocco Parascandola, Eli Rosenberg, Laura Bult, Ben Kochman