NEW YORK — Police fatally shot a robbery suspect in the East Village Saturday during a violent struggle, officials said.
Detectives investigating the robbery of a City College student on Thursday tracked the suspect down to an apartment at 538 East 6th Street and attempted to arrest him at 1:45 p.m. Saturday, police said.
When the suspect, who sources identified as 22-year-old Felix David, heard the detectives coming, he escaped from his sixth-floor apartment window and climbed down the fire escape, officials said.
Detectives ran downstairs and caught up with David in the lobby, where they got into a physical struggle, police said.
According to police officials, during the five-minute fight, David grabbed one of the detectives' radios and used it to beat them in the head, reportedly striking one of the officers so hard the radio broke.
One of the detectives pulled out his gun and fired, shooting David in the torso, police said.
David was taken to Beth Israel Hospital, where he died, officials said. The detectives "sustained serious injuries," according to detectives union president Michael Palladino, and were taken to Bellevue Hospital.
David had confronted a 21-year-old woman he knew while she was in a class at City College Thursday evening, pulling her out of a presentation and arguing with her in the hallway, police said.
He began punching her in the face and body before stealing her purse — which had her cellphone, ID, and ATM card — and running away, police said.
The building where the shooting took place is a halfway house for people with mental illness, according to the Daily News.
