NEW YORK — The police officer whose bulletproof vest saved his life after he was shot in the chest at a Lower East Side housing complex Thursday morning was released from the hospital on Friday, according to a report.
Officer Brian Groves, 30, whose chest was bruised when a man fired at him at point-blank range during a pursuit early Thursday morning, left Bellevue Hospital on Friday and returned home to Long Island, the Daily News reported.
Groves, a married father of two young girls, was patrolling the Seward Park Extension building at 64 Essex St., near Grand Street, about 3:40 a.m. Thursday when he and his partner saw a man with a silver handgun in the stairwell on the 22nd floor, police said.
Groves followed the suspect down three flights of stairs, and then the man turned and fired a single shot to Groves' chest, which could have been fatal if Groves was not wearing his Kevlar vest, police said.
The suspect is still at large. Police described him as a man in his 20s, 5-foot-9, with hair braided in cornrows. He was wearing a black T-shirt and red basketball shorts with tan stripes, police said.
