By Carla Zanoni and Murray Weiss
DNAinfo Staff
INWOOD — The men who were shot by police on a quiet Inwood street in an incident that left residents shaken were being investigated by a drug taskforce that draws its name from the classic film "The Shining," sources said.
Members of the "REDRUM" group of NYPD and Drug Enforcement Administration agents, which investigate cases that involve drug trafficking and violence, were probing the suspects for a series of armed robberies in Inwood, Washington Heights and The Bronx, according to the sources.
"REDRUM," the word "murder" spelled backwards, is creepily repeated by Jack Nicholson's son in the 1980 Kubrick film, which is based on Stephen King's book.
Sources said that the taskforce decided to arrest the men Tuesday night as they sat in a car on Cooper Street between 204th and 207th streets.
When the cops pulled them over, one of the four passengers pointed a gun at the officers, sources said.
An NYPD officer shot once, followed by a DEA officer who shot an unknown amount of times, according to the sources.
One man was shot in the groin and taken to Harlem Hospital. Another suffered a graze to the shoulder and was treated at the scene. The other two passengers were arrested. Four firearms were recovered at the scene.
The incident left residents on the quiet block reeling.
“It’s so upsetting,” said Cooper Street resident Michael Holtman, 36, who said he heard the gunshots just after 10 p.m. Tuesday. “This is a good neighborhood with some really rotten apples. The problem is they can ruin it for all of us.”
Although most expressed gratitude for the police investigation and intervention, some remained skeptical about the incident, which comes on the heels of two high profile cases where police are accused of harming Inwood residents this year.
Investigations are still ongoing in the alleged rape of an Inwood woman by an off-duty 33rd Precinct police officer just blocks away in August and the September shooting death by an undercover detective of Inwood grandfather John Collado on Post Avenue.
Some said the arrest and alleged mistreatment of City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez on the day that Zuccotti Park was raided by police further highlights the tension between cops and residents.
“If even our politicians are being treated like that, what else can we expect?” said Maria Guzman, 27, of Inwood.
Although many in the neighborhood said they were surprised to hear about the incident, two previous commanding officers at the 34th Precinct previously identified Cooper Street as a hot spot for drugs, robberies and lesser crimes over the past three years.
And cops are still investigating an August gunpoint robbery that took place on the same stretch of Cooper Street, steps from where the shooting took place Tuesday night.
Crime in the 34th Precinct increased this year by 22.95 percent through August, resulting in the removal of the commanding officer of the precinct, but that increase has dropped to 7.93 percent since then, according to NYPD's CompStat report for Nov. 7 to Nov. 13.
But for many, news of violent crime, muggings and climbing quality of life crimes has left them unsettled and thinking about relocating to another part of the city if not outside New York altogether.
“This is unreal. I hear of a new crime happening in Inwood every day lately,” wrote on parent on an Inwood parenting email list. “I love Inwood and don't want to leave, but if this is the way it is going, I don't want my son to be exposed to this type of environment.”
