An NYPD officer who opened fire during a Harlem melee told fellow cops a suspect who ended up with 23 bullet wounds shot first.
“The guy shot at me,” Officer Douglas Brightman told Sgt. Brian Duffy moments after the Aug. 8 shooting, a source said. “And I fired back.”
A second cop, Sgt. Philip Terpos, said Brightman told him the same story: “He shot at me.”
Brightman, who fired two 9-mm. bullets, was referring to Angel Alvarez, an ex-con who cops say wrestled away a revolver during a dispute with a rival and then started shooting.
Four cops then fired a total of 46 shots. Alvarez’s fight rival Luis Soto was killed, and three bystanders and two other cops were hit by gunfire.
Click here to read the entire article…