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Red Hook Man Arrested After Shooting at Cops

By  Alan Neuhauser and Paul DeBenedetto | July 13, 2012 2:18pm | Updated on July 13, 2012 9:15pm

The Red Hook Houses, where a suspect fled after allegedly opening fire at cops, police say.
The Red Hook Houses, where a suspect fled after allegedly opening fire at cops, police say.
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DNAinfo/Alan Neuhauser

RED HOOK — A Red Hook man was arrested on Friday after shooting at two cops, police said.

Cops arrested 20-year-old Bobby Boomer after he fired shots at two police officers near the Red Hook Houses, police said.

Following the arrest, residents gathered en masse in protest of the police, shouting anti-police slogans and epithets, according to witnesses.

The shooting incident — which came just a week after a cop was shot on the Lower East Side — unfolded around 1:00 a.m. on Friday morning when police got a tip about a suspicious man outside the Red Hook Houses with a gun in his waistband.

Cops spotted Boomer walking toward a deli near Mill Street and Hicks Street. 

As the officers approached Boomer, he fled toward the 21 Mill St. entrance of the houses, police said. He allegedly turned toward the officers and fired his 45-caliber Smith & Wesson once, according to police.

The 45-caliber Smith and Wesson that police allegedly confiscated from the suspect.
The 45-caliber Smith and Wesson that police allegedly confiscated from the suspect.
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NYPD

The officers did not return fire. Boomer allegedly ran into 21 Mill St., made it to the roof, and managed to enter the neighboring building, 15 Mill St., where officers found him hiding underneath a bed in a sixth floor apartment, police said.

Police found Boomer's loaded gun, which had been reported stolen in Newton, Ga., inside 21 Mill St. Charges against Boomer were still pending Friday evening.

"Fortunately, our police officers escaped injury this time," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a statement released Friday afternoon. "They continue to risk their lives to protect New Yorkers in some of the city's poorest neighborhoods, confronting suspects, all too many armed with illegal handguns."

Joshua Rodney, 85, who lives in the building, said he heard the gun go off, followed by the sound of sirens. It's a sound he said he hears once or twice a week.

"They're very regular," Rodney said of the shots.

Witnesses said a large group of people filled the courtyard of the houses to protest the cops after Boomer's arrest.

"I heard them chanting at two and 2:30 in the morning, 'F--k the police,' 'F--k you,' stuff like that," said one witness, Jose Torres, 36, who is from Sunset Park but was visiting his girlfriend at the time. "They make the cops the enemy, but cops are not the enemy. They're just out trying to get guns off the streets."

Just 90 minutes before the confrontation between Boomer and the cops, police officers had another run-in with an armed man. Cops caught Stanley Dorcius, 22, on the roof of 21 Mill St. with a loaded 45-caliber semi-automatic, police said.

Dorcius allegedly pushed, punched and kicked the officers before he was arrested. He was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of 13 bags of marijuana, and resisting arrest, police said.