Time For: Let The NYPD Show You How NOT To Handle A Firearm...

NYPD cops hit by own shots: 3 police officers wounded as pit bull attacks on upper East Side

"Three cops were hit with ricocheting bullets Wednesday night while blasting away at a pit bull attacking them in a narrow passageway of an upper East Side housing project, police said.

Three other officers were either bitten or scratched by the dog before cops killed it, they said. None of the injuries was serious, but one cop was hit under the eye.

Police said the mayhem in the Isaacs Houses at 1806 First Ave. and 94th St., which sent scores of people running for cover on the street below, began about 10:30 p.m. when cops went in to investigate a 911 call about an assault with a gun.

When they got to the 11th floor of the 20-story building and knocked on the door of the apartment in question, a woman opened it and the snarling pit bull leaped out. All six cops went for their guns while trying to fend the dog off with their hands and feet, police said.

Samaria Marrero, who was in a bodega on the corner of E. 95th St., ran out to see what was going on when she heard the first shot.

"There were five shots at least," she said.

"At first we thought it was firecrackers. We went to see to be nosy, and there was a cop on the floor." Investigators said the woman in the apartment, identified as Milagros Martinez, slammed the door on the cops after the gunfire ended and the dog was dead. She suffered a hand injury and was arrested, police said.

Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said five other people in the apartment then barricaded themselves inside for about a half-hour.

They surrendered quietly after a hostage negotiator talked to them for about 20 minutes.

Browne said the cop hurt the worst took a bullet fragment below the eye. Another officer was hit in the hand, and a third was hit on the side of his nose.

All of the officers were treated at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell.

Browne said no weapon was found in the apartment."

FMJ's rarely leave "bullet fragments", so its probable that the Keystone Coppers shot up the floor and were nicked by flying pieces of tile and linoleum.

I know that building fairly well, having spent more than a few days handing out Vote-For-Mayor-Giuliani fliers there back in the good old times, and lemme tell ya that the noise must have been horrific. Its a wonder if any of our brave and blue summons issuers have one intact ear drum left among the lot of them.

Final Score: Pit Bull 3, Keystones 1.