Indian-origin NYPD officer hailed hero for shooting gunman

New York: A 27-year-old Indian-origin “super rookie” NYPD officer is being hailed as a hero after he shot a convicted felon who killed his colleague and seriously injured another while investigating a domestic-violence call in the Harlem neighbourhood of New York City. Sumit Sulan is still struggling to deal with Friday’s deadly ambush and “his brain is stuck on the situation”, his mother told the New York Post newspaper. According to the police, 47-year-old crazed career criminal Lawshawn McNeil on Friday ambushed the three policemen -- Sulan, Jason Rivera, 22 and Wilbert Mora, 27, who visited the Harlem address to investigate a domestic-violence call. McNeil opened fire and killed Rivera while critically injuring Mora. Officer Sulan fired back at McNeil and wounded him during the deadly mayhem. Accused McNeil, a convicted felon, is currently hospitalised in a critical condition. Speaking to the Post, the Indian-origin NYPD officer’s mother Dalvir Sulan, 60, said that her son is “shaken” and cannot get what happened out of his head.

“I’m proud. Everyone says he did good,” she said. “I feel bad for the other (officer). He died. We really feeal bad. We’re sorry. We’re hurt. The other guy is critical and we’re hurt,” she said from her Queens home. A law-enforcement source described Sulan as a “super rookie,” noting that he has been on the job since April and at Harlem’s 32nd Precinct for only two months. —(PTI)