New York Post – by Selim Algar, Larry Celona, Jamie Schram and Antonio Antenucci
An NYPD detective and two US Marshals were shot in a wild firefight with a fugitive child molester inside a smoke shop in the heart of Greenwich Village on Monday afternoon, authorities said.
Suspect Charles Mozdir was killed during the shootout, while the officers received non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.
The officers were trying to nab Mozdir — a 32-year-old wedding photographer sought since 2012 for molesting a kid in California — when bullets started flying around 1:10 p.m. in the Smoking Culture NYC shop at 177 W. 4th St.
The heavily tattooed Mozdir was behind the counter of the bong-peddling store between tony Barrow and Jones streets when the federal Fugitive Task Force officers burst in, law-enforcement sources told The Post.
Mozdir — who had just been featured on CNN’s “The Hunt’’ with John Walsh last week and previously vowed never to be taken alive — whipped out a revolver and fired, and the officers started shooting back, sources said.
The detective was shot in the stomach — under his bulletproof vest — one marshal was hit in the elbow and the other in the buttocks, sources said.
“It appears that the injuries to the officers are not life-threatening,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
The officers were taken to Bellevue Hospital, sources said.
Emergency service workers performed chest compressions on Mozdir as they brought him out of the shop on a stretcher, but he died of his wounds, sources said.
Mozdir had been the subject of a nationwide manhunt after a family friend accused him of molesting her son while baby-sitting him in Coronado near San Diego in June 2012.
He was arrested for the alleged molestation within days after it happened, but he posted and then jumped $1 million bail.
Authorities had been hunting him from California to Mexico to the Deep South ever since.
They knew he had extensive search-and-rescue training and was capable of living off the land for extended periods of time.
They also knew he was familiar with firearms — he had at least one gun registered to him and another in his possession.
.@CommissBratton arrives at #westvillageshooting pic.twitter.com/KQmtQXIjfU
— Ivan Pereira (@IvanPer4) July 28, 2014
And he wasn’t afraid to use them. Cops said he threatened the family of his accuser and said he would take his own life if cornered by authorities.
After Mozdir was featured on “The Hunt,’’ authorities received a tip that he was in Manhattan, sources said.
A law-enforcement source said he was surprised because fugitives rarely opt for the bright lights of Manhattan to maintain a low profile. But they figured Mozdir decided it was his best bet to avoid capture.
http://nypost.com/2014/07/28/u-s-marshal-nypd-detective-shot-in-nyc-raid/
hope your armed up Angel.
so they got one. big deal. he musta been on the wrong team. if this story is even true or maybe he was slated for execution. who knows. systemic pedophilia across the nation is taking place. this is a drop in the bucket. victims are key in controlling the populace.
if he could live off grid then why was he in the middle of the biggest grid their is?
“Suspect Charles Mozdir was killed during the shootout, while the officers received non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.”
O’K., so what was the problem here?
“Mozdir — who had just been featured on CNN’s “The Hunt’’ with John Walsh last week and previously vowed never to be taken alive…”
O.K., so he was a hardcore ‘gangsta’.
“…whipped out a revolver and fired, and the officers started shooting back, sources said.”
A REVOLVER? AGAINST COPS WITH FULLY AUTOMATIC WEAPONS???
This moron had a death wish, and he got it.
hardcore gangsta that looks like a dweeb.” vowed never to be taken alive” mantra. ad nauseum. but hey, that’s just me.