Federal officers nabbed the suspect wanted in this week’s shooting of a rookie NYPD cop in Queens, according to police sources.
Members of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force arrested the accused gunman at his home in the Bronx neighborhood of Wakefield on Thursday night, the sources said.
Earlier Thursday afternoon, authorities doubled the reward for the suspect’s arrest and conviction to $20,000.
Wounded NYPD Officer Brett Boller underwent surgery Wednesday night and was expected to be released from Jamaica Hospital early next week, a source said.
Boller had been flagged down by an MTA bus driver during an argument between passengers on Jamaica Ave. on Wednesday afternoon, NYPD Chief of Department James Essig said.
When the 22-year-old officer boarded the bus to find out what was going on, the suspect muscled his way off and fled down 161st St., cops said. Boller and his partner gave chase.
Around mid-block, Boller caught up with the man, Essig said. As they grappled, the suspect pulled a gun and shot the officer in the leg.
As Boller fell to the pavement bleeding, his partner fired twice at the fleeing gunman, according to Essig.
Responding officers quickly grabbed a man wearing a similar black bubble jacket and red hoodie as the shooter but let him go after questioning. That man is not believed to have anything to do with the shooting, a police source said.
Investigators learned that the gunman ducked into a parking garage to shuck off his jacket and hoodie before running off in just a white T-shirt, cops said.
Police recovered surveillance footage that showed the quick change.
Boller, the son of NYPD Deputy Inspector Donald Boller, graduated in the same academy class as an officer who was wounded on New Year’s Eve in Times Square by a machete-wielding Maine man who had recently converted to Islam, police say.
