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Detective kills suspect in Rockaway shooting

Detective kills suspect in Rockaway shooting
Photo courtesy NYPD
By Christina Santucci

A Harlem man who police said was a suspect in the shooting of a 25-year-old woman in Rockaway Beach was killed during a shoot-out with a police officer in an Upper Manhattan subway station Tuesday afternoon, and a detective who was shot during the melee is in stable condition, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

When Detective Kevin Herlihy and fellow officers confronted the suspect, Michael McBride, 52, near 145th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue, McBride fled and then shot at police, hitting Herlihy in the left arm, Bloomberg said in a statement.

“Detective Herlihy exchanged fire, and the shooter was killed,” the mayor said.

Herlihy is expected to make a full recovery, according to the mayor.

Bloomberg said Herlihy had been tracking McBride, and police said McBride was the subject of an intensive search by detectives from the Queens Warrant Violent Felony Squad, the 100th Precinct Detective Squad and the Technical Assistant Response Unit. It was not known which unit Herlihy was operating in during the hunt.

At some point McBride realized that he had been spotted, went into the subway station at 145th Street and crossed the mezzanine to another exit, before turning and firing between four and six shots at police, according to a statement from the Police Department.

When Herlihy fired back, McBride was shot in the chest and then ran up the subway station’s stairs before collapsing, police said. McBride’s .22-caliber six-shot revolver was recovered at the scene, with six-shell casings used, police said.

McBride, who had a long rap sheet for arrests and was on parole for robbery, lived in the neighborhood at 159 West 145th Street, authorities said.

The NYPD had released a request for the public’s assistance Tuesday afternoon – about half hour before the shootout – to locate McBride for questioning about the shooting of a woman in the Rockaway Beach apartment of McBride’s girlfriend.

Police said the victim, who Bloomberg said is believed to be the daughter of McBride’s girlfriend, was shot once in the head around 12:30 p.m. Monday and McBride was seen arguing with her in the building – possibly the hallway – before the shooting. She remained in very critical condition at North Shore University Hospital Tuesday evening, police said.

“All of us here are incredibly grateful that Detective Herlihy is alive. And I’m happy to say that all indications are that he will be able to walk out of here probably tomorrow and go home to his family and his wife, Adrienne,” Bloomberg said after visiting Herlihy at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia University Medical Center Tuesday evening.