2 N.Y.P.D. Officers Shot on a Call About a Family Dispute, Officials Say

Two New York City police officers were shot in a Brooklyn apartment on Tuesday after a man grabbed a service weapon from one officer during a skirmish that unfolded as the officers responded to a call about a domestic dispute, officials said.

One officer was shot in the left hand, and the other was shot in the left leg, according to officials, who did not identify the officers beyond saying one had been with the Police Department for nine and a half years and the other was a 16-year department veteran.

The man who grabbed the officer’s gun, Melvin Butler, was shot several times during the altercation and was in critical but stable condition at Kings County Hospital, officials said. He had not been charged as of Tuesday evening, officials said.

Although neither of the officers’ injuries were life-threatening, Mayor Eric Adams described the shooting as a “horrific incident.”

Mr. Adams, speaking at a news conference, said that a “very violent and dangerous person” had tried to “harm our officers.” Fortunately, he added, “because of their actions, a dangerous person is apprehended, and two officers will be going home to their families.”

By way of contrast, the mayor invoked the fatal shooting of two officers, Wilbert Mora and Jason Rivera, who were killed in January 2022 while responding to a call about a domestic dispute in Harlem.

“Today,” he said, “we could have had a similar tragedy.”

Speaking at the news conference, Joseph E. Kenny, the Police Department’s chief of detectives, offered the following account of the events that resulted in the shootings:

At around 3 p.m., a sergeant and three officers from the 73rd Precinct responded to a 911 call from a female tenant of an apartment on Bergen Street in a section of Brooklyn where the neighborhoods of Brownsville and Crown Heights meet. The caller said she was being physically assaulted by her son, Mr. Butler, and had a head injury.

Arriving at the apartment, the officers confronted Mr. Butler, 39; told him he was being arrested; and directed him to put his hands behind his back. He resisted, and a “violent struggle” ensued, Chief Kenny said.

“At some point, Butler grabs hold of an officer’s service weapon, and shots are fired,” the chief said. Ultimately, officers subdued Mr. Butler and took him into custody.

The investigation into the incident was continuing, including an examination of body-camera footage and ballistics evidence, Chief Kenny said, when asked whether any of the shots that hit the officers might have been so-called friendly fire.

Chief Kenny said that Mr. Butler had a history of domestic violence and resisting arrest and a record of arrests in New York and North Carolina. He spent 11 years in state prison in New York after being convicted of assault and robbery charges and was released in 2017, corrections department records show.