The NYPD released body camera footage Friday of a Springfield Gardens police-involved shooting that left two officers injured and a 41-year-old dead after he opened fire on the officers making an alleged domestic violence house visit in November 2020.
Rondell Goppy, a 41-year-old CUNY peace officer accused of domestic violence, was killed in the gunfire after he stormed his own home with a handgun, firing 11 shots at the officers, injuring them both.
The incident began around 12:45 p.m., on Nov. 24, when NYPD officers Christopher Wells and Joseph Murphy escorted a woman to her home, located around 179th Street and 146th Road, after she had earlier filed a police report at the 105th Precinct accusing Goppy of domestic violence, according to the police.
The woman and two officers enter the home and spoke about making plans for the woman to leave and stay elsewhere until the NYPD could arrest Goppy, who legally owned two guns, video shows.
As the woman and two officers spoke in the living room, Goppy burst in through the front door, and without saying a word, began to fire.
Wells and Murphy fired back, getting off 24 shots, hitting Goppy, who was later pronounced dead at the scene.
The woman was not injured in the shootout.
Wells was shot once in his right thigh and Murphy was shot twice – once in each hand. Both officers were treated at Jamaica Medical Center and released two days later on Thanksgiving to much fanfare.
“Here you have officers who are doing the Lord’s work. They protect survivors of domestic violence,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said after the gunfight. “They go into the volatile difficult situations you can possibly imagine. Some of the most difficult work these police officers do. They do it to protect people who have been victims of abuse. Here we have a situation when one woman was in danger and these officers went to protect her, only to find themselves in harm’s way. Thank God they will both pull through.”
Prior to the shooting, the NYPD had made four domestic violence visits to the home, cops said.
Watch the body camera footage below. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.
