A city cop was critically wounded by a cowardly ex-con who blasted two bullets into his head on a Queens street Saturday evening — the fifth NYPD officer to be shot in as many months.
Plainclothes officer Brian Moore, 25, was in a medically induced coma after surgery to relieve pressure on his brain, law-enforcement sources told The Post.
Brian MoorePhoto: DCPI
The suspected gunman, Demetrius Blackwell, was in custody Saturday night after allegedly firing at Moore as the cop approached in an unmarked police car.
"He's far from out of the woods," one law-enforcement source said of Moore, who was in surgery for more than four hours.
Suspect Demetrius Blackwell
A four-year NYPD veteran from a police family, Moore had been driving by the intersection of 212th Street and 104th Avenue in Queens Village at around 6:15 p.m.
He and his partner, Officer Eric Jensen, spotted Blackwell, whom they knew to have a long police record, said Police Commissioner Bill Bratton.
Blackwell had been fiddling with his waistband, a source said. The officers pulled up behind him, and Blackwell realized they were cops.
Words were exchanged, Bratton told a news conference at Jamaica Hospital.
Then suddenly Blackwell, 35, drew a gun and fired at least three shots, shattering the quiet of the middle-class neighborhood, authorities said.
"He immediately opened fire on them before they had a chance to get out of the vehicle," Bratton said.
"Demetrius Blackwell was taken into custody 90 minutes after the incident," Bratton said.
Jensen was not injured.
The shooting came as efforts are underway by City Council members to cut the power of police, and follows the fatal ambush of officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos in Brooklyn in December, and the nonfatal shooting of two other officers, Andrew Dossi and Aliro Pellerano in The Bronx in January.
Fellow officers placed Moore, who is assigned to the 105th Precinct, in a squad car and sped to Jamaica Hospital. He was in critical but stable condition.
Moore's father and uncle are retired NYPD sergeants, and his cousin is a city cop.
"It doesn't look good," one worried officer could be heard telling another in the emergency room, which was crammed with fellow brothers in blue as Moore underwent surgery.
Other officers launched a manhunt for the suspected gunman, finding him at a home nearby with the help of witnesses who saw him flee.
"We saw him jump over the fence across 104th Street and push the gun in his pants," said one neighbor. "He then ran down the sidewalk and into the driveway of a house three houses down.
"Then I ran over to the police car and told them where he went."
Law-enforcement sources told The Post that Blackwell has a record of 10 arrests, including five on charges of robbery, grand larceny and criminal possession of a weapon.
Cops said they're still looking for the gun.
"It is a painful day for all of us," said Mayor de Blasio, who also spoke at the hospital.
"He is a brave young man," the mayor said of Moore.
Police gathered there did not turn their backs on de Blasio, as they did at the funerals of Liu, 32, and Ramos, 40.
Scene of the shootingPhoto: Paul Martinka
Before last December, it had been four years since an NYPD officer was shot dead on duty.
NYPD Detective Peter Figoski died on Dec. 12, 2011, after being shot while responding to a home invasion in Brooklyn.
Bill de Blasio and Bill Bratton speak to the press at Jamaica Hospital Center after an NYPD officer was shot in Queens.Photo: Christopher Sadowski
Neighbors of Moore in Nassau County were shocked.
"He's a good kid said a woman who asked not to be identified. "We're all praying for him. I've known him since he was a baby.
Another neighbor, Joan Olton, said she's known Moore since he was three years old. Moore had planned to visit her son that night at her home to watch the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight.
"My son is distraught,'' she said.
Her daughter, she said, was Moore's high school prom date, and while they're no longer a couple, they're still friends and she went to the hospital to see him.
She told her mom that she saw him being wheeled into a CAT Scan machine after surgery.
A fellow officer who knows Moore fumed, "This is the city we live in today.
"Innocent cops keep getting shot for no reason.''
Discussing his injured pal, he recalled, "he was always laughing and smiling.'''
Additional reporting by Kenneth Garger, Leonica Valentine, Melkorka Licea and Erin Calabrese
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