NEW YORK (AP) - A police officer from a Long Island department shot and killed a man in New York City after chasing him across the border into the city, police said.
The Nassau County Police Department killed Matthew Felix, 19, about 5 p.m. Tuesday in southeastern Queens. The department said in a statement late Tuesday that its officers “were involved in a shooting incident with a subject who was fatally wounded.”
Officials declined to say if Felix was armed at the time or provide details of the circumstances that led an officer, or officers, to open fire, citing active investigations of both the New York City Police Department and the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
The NYPD referred questions to the Nassau police.
The shooting occurred hours after someone attempted to sell a vehicle and met Felix in a parking lot, Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said.
Felix displayed a black firearm and pointed it “to the victim’s head and tells him to get out of the car,” Ryder said. Felix then fled the scene in the vehicle.
Officer’s were able to to track the vehicle to Felix’s home. The owner of the vehicle identified Felix to police as the carjacker. Police attempted to arrest Felix after he left his home and got into a car that was not the stolen vehicle, Ryder said.
Witnesses told Newsday that the shooting happened on a busy street during rush hour. Laron Josephs, 32, said he was leaving a nearby McDonald’s with his 4-year-old daughter when he heard shots and saw a crowd move toward the loud bangs.
“I seen a bullet in the door,” Josephs said. “I didn’t see anybody inside the car. But by the time I really got to really look, I seen them pulling a person out the car. The person was dead.”
Yvette Agosto, 50, said the shooting concerned her because it occurred on a busy block. “There was a lot of people, the commute, going up and down,” she said. “Everybody was shopping here. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.