New York officers hurt in separate shootings

— Three New York City police officers were recovering Friday, hours after being shot in separate incidents that left one suspect dead and four under arrest.

The shootings occurred in a one-hour span Thursday night.

Off-duty Police Officer Juan Pichardo was shot in the thigh at his family’s Bronx car dealership by one of two men who entered the business about 6:30 p.m.

An hour later in Brooklyn, two plainclothes transit officers were injured in a shootout on a subway car. A man pulled a handgun from his waistband and opened fire, police said. One of the officers returned fire, killing the suspect.

“In recent weeks, we’ve heard some people say that the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. But sometimes the good guys get shot — and sometimes, they are killed,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday.

“Tonight, thank God, three good guys — three New York City police officers, who acted heroically — are going to make it,” the mayor said.

Last year, 11 police officers were shot while on duty and one while off duty, none of them fatal.

Read more in tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

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