New York police detective Dominick Libretti was shot in Staten Island yesterday during a drug bust, but still wounded he managed to use a ballistic shield to save himself and his team, authorities said.
Libretti was shot by Nelson Pizarro (39), a suspect with seven arrests who violently broke into through a bedroom door and fired “numerous shots” inside a building on Rockne Street near Ellwood Avenue, in Heartland Village, around 6 a.m. yesterday, the New York Post reported.
Detective Libretti suffered a possible “career-ending injury,” police said. This is the third NYPD police officer who has been shot in what little has passed of the already violent year 2022.
Yesterday the president of the Endowment Association of Detectives (DEA), Paul DiGiacomo, criticized the recent violence and state laws against crime in NY. “Because there are so many guns on the street and the policies that are in place with bail reform are not working, the people of the city are not safe,” he told reporters. “And I ask the governor, the leader of the Senate and the assembly to fix the laws they broke to keep the people of this city safe.”
“Because there are so many guns on the street and the current policies with the bail reform are not working, the people of the city are not safe”
Paul DiGiacomo, President of the NYPD Detective Staffing Association (DEA)
Libretti, a veteran of 10 years in law enforcement who has “received numerous medals and accolades” and he had never fired his gun on the job before. The new Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell hailed the detective as a hero at a press conference yesterday hours after he was injured.
“Even with a serious leg injury, bleeding so much that his colleagues they had to apply immediate pressure to stop the blood loss, he held a ballistic shield in front of his team to protect them from the gunshots,” the police chief said. He was taken to Staten Island University North Hospital in stable condition.
Police were executing a search warrant at that residence when Pizarro, who was not the target of the warrant, opened fire, authorities said. The subject of the search for sale of a controlled substance was Anthony Marshall (40), who was also arrested at the scene.
A 12 year old girl was present in the apartment during the shooting. Two women were also taken into custody, said NYPD Detective Chief James Essig.