N.Y.P.D. Officer Fatally Shoots Woman at Girlfriend’s Home, Police Say

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/13/nyregion/nypd-officer-women-shot.html

Version 0 of 2.

A New York City police officer was in custody late Wednesday after admitting to fatally shooting a woman whom she encountered in her girlfriend’s Brooklyn apartment and shooting the girlfriend as well, officials said.

The officer was described by police officials at a news conference as a 31-year-old who has been with the Police Department for five and a half years and was most recently assigned to a Brooklyn precinct.

A police official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an active investigation, identified her as Yvonne Wu.

She was off duty when the shooting occurred, officials said.

Assistant Chief Michael Kemper, speaking at the news conference, said that the shooting was being treated as a homicide and that the officer being held had been “calm and collected and very forthcoming” in telling colleagues who responded to the scene what had happened.

“Simply put, she confessed,” said Chief Kemper, the commanding officer of Patrol Borough Brooklyn South. “That’s all I’m going to say.”

Referring to the officer and the woman whose apartment the shooting occurred in, Chief Kemper said, “We believe they had an intimate relationship.”

He said that the officer in custody was waiting in the girlfriend’s apartment, in the Bensonhurst neighborhood, when the girlfriend, 23, and the second woman, 24, arrived. The shooting happened some time after that, around 5 p.m., prompting several 911 calls, Chief Kemper said.

The responding officers found the girlfriend on the bedroom floor and the second woman on the floor in the living room, Chief Kemper said.

The girlfriend had been shot once in the body, and the second woman had been shot at least once in the chest, he said. She was pronounced dead a short time later. The girlfriend was expected to recover, Chief Kemper said.

“We believe all three parties knew each other,” he said.

Asked whether the officer had used her service weapon in the shooting, he said there was a “very good chance” that was the case, and that investigators and taken ballistic evidence and a gun from the apartment.

Ashley Southall contributed reporting.