An off-duty police officer shot and wounded a man suspected of groping a woman and a teenager in a Harlem subway station Friday, said a police official who offered the following account.
Around 12:30 p.m., a mother and her daughter, who is 13 or 14 years old, entered the subway station at West 125th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue. As they approached the mezzanine turnstile to descend to the uptown D platform, a man grabbed the teenager’s buttocks.
The girl’s mother yelled for the police. The off-duty officer responded. As the woman and her daughter explained what happened, another woman came up and said the same man had just groped her and was running down the steps.
The officer instructed the mother to call 911 and say that an off-duty officer required assistance. The officer found the suspect sitting on a bench on the uptown D platform. Witnesses say they heard the officer shout: “Police! Get down! Get down!” They heard a single gunshot.
The police said the officer, a 19-year veteran and a career transit officer, shot the 22-year-old suspect once in the buttocks after a brief scuffle. The suspect was in stable condition at Harlem Hospital Center. No further details about him were immediately released.
Northbound service to the station was suspended after the incident and did not resume until 5:25 p.m., the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said.