NYPD cops fatally shoot suspect wanted for assault in Chelsea

NYPD cops fatally shot a man in Chelsea on Tuesday, police said.

Gunfire erupted near the corner of W. 24th St. and Seventh Ave. as police worked to make an arrest in a felony assault case just before 2:45 p.m., police sources said.

An NYPD detective and lieutenant with a joint federal Homeland Security violent gang task force spotted a suspect outside an eyeglass store near the intersection, police said.

The man fled into the store and members of the task force chased him inside, where he pulled a gun on the cops, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a news conference late Tuesday afternoon.

“I saw the police rush into the store,” said witness Randy Moreno. “I heard the yelling from inside and then all hell broke loose.”

The officers shot the 25-year-old suspect three times and then immediately performed first aid, including CPR, Kenny said.

“I saw the guy they brought out on a stretcher,” said Moreno, who was delivering for Uber Eats in the area. “He was barely clothed. He was in bad shape and they were pumping his chest.”

Medics rushed the wounded man to an area hospital, where he died. An officer involved in the struggle also suffered a gash to his head.

“It was crazy,” said Moreno, 39. “It was like a police show, like ‘Law and Order.’”

A 26-year-old man who was with the suspect was also taken into custody at the scene. He wasn’t immediately charged, police said.

After the shooting, police urged people to steer clear of the area as they continued to investigate the shooting Tuesday afternoon.

The slain man was wanted for an April 7 assault at a nearby deli, where he bashed a man with a glass jar, police sources said.

He also served over two years behind bars for an attempted robbery charge, records show. He was released on parole in 2020.

The clash marked the second police-involved shooting in less than two weeks and the third in just over a month.

On April 20, officers shot and killed a 65-year-old man who was threatening a woman with a knife in Queens.

The cops ordered the man to drop the weapon on Roosevelt Ave. near 103rd St. in Corona but he refused, NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said after the shooting.

On March 27, cops fatally shot a 19-year-old man suffering a mental heath crisis in his Queens home.

Win Rozario called 911 on himself as he spiraled out of control in his Queens home near the corner of 103rd St. and 101st Ave. in Ozone Park.

Cops arrived within minutes and when the young man pulled a pair of scissors out of a drawer and charged at them, both responding officers discharged their firearms.