N.Y. / REGION

Bystander Shot by Undercover Police Officer Dies

By LIAM STACK and 
Investigators were at the scene of a police shooting in Mount Vernon, N.Y., on Friday night.Uli Seit for The New York Times
A bystander accidentally shot by an undercover New York City police officer on Friday afternoon during an illegal firearms sting gone awry has died, the Police Department said on Saturday.
The bystander, identified as Felix Kumi, 61, was shot twice in the torso as the officer fired at a man involved in the botched sting. That man, a 37-year old who was not immediately named, was hit three times and hospitalized in serious condition. Mr. Kumi died early Saturday at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, according to the police.
The New York Police Department said that the episode unfolded around 4 p.m. in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., during an investigation into a suspected illegal firearms dealer.
Detective Michael DeBonis, a spokesman for the department, said the gun dealer was the subject of a “long-term firearms investigation.”
The police said that undercover officers in the past had purchased numerous firearms from him. He contacted an undercover police officer on Friday and asked to meet in the Bronx so that he could sell the officer a gun, Detective DeBonis said. When the officer arrived, the dealer asked him to drive them about a mile into Mount Vernon, a city in Westchester County that borders New York City.
WESTCHESTER
Mount Vernon
22
Site of shooting
Wakefield
BRONX
Eastchester
1 Mile
By The New York Times
The gun dealer, whom the police department identified as Jeffrey Aristy, 28, asked to be taken to the intersection of Beekman and Tecumseh Avenues. When they arrived, Detective DeBonis said, a third man, the 37 year old, climbed into the back seat of the car, held a gun to the officer’s head and demanded his money. After the robber took the officer’s money and started to run away, he pointed his gun at the officer, the police said. The undercover officer climbed out of his vehicle and opened fire, striking the robber three times in the torso, the detective said. He also accidentally shot Mr. Kumi, who was standing nearby, the police said.
A second team of undercover officers nearby shot at the robber as he fled, firing several rounds, Detective DeBonis said.
Mr. Aristy, the suspected gun dealer, escaped during the melee, but was later arrested, the Police Department said. He was charged with criminal sale of firearms and criminal sale of a controlled substance.
A witness who would not give his name for fear of reprisals said he had seen the bystander being taken into an ambulance with a large bandage wrapped around his head. The wounded man told emergency workers he was in pain, the witness said.
The robber, who the police said had a “replica” of a .45-caliber handgun, was taken into custody and transported to the hospital.
James P. O’Neill, the chief of department for the Police Department, said the robber had the undercover officer’s money in his possession.
The undercover officers were part of a team from the department’s organized crime control bureau firearms investigations unit, Chief O’Neill said.
James P. O'Neill, center, chief of department for the New York Police Department, discussing the episode in Mount Vernon, N.Y., on Friday during which undercover officers shot a robbery suspect and a bystander. Uli Seit for The New York Times
Terrance Raynor, the Mount Vernon police commissioner, said that several vehicles had been struck by bullets during the shooting and that one had gone through the front door of a nearby home. An employee of a nearby business, Renzo Auto Body, said gunfire had come through its windows as well. “Things went awry, and shots were fired,” Commissioner Raynor said.
The shooting occurred in a residential neighborhood of three-story houses. The commissioner said it was “a relatively quiet residential area where this incident occurred, not known for violence of any sort.”
Tony Isles, who lives near the scene of the shooting, ran to the window after he heard two bursts of gunfire on the street nearby, he said.
“It was a ton of shots,” he said. “Bap, bap, bap, bap, bap, bap! Then it stopped, and then bap, bap, bap, bap again. I couldn’t count how many shots because it was such rapid fire.”
Mr. Isles said he had watched from his second-story window as two men and two women fled down the street. “I looked out the window,” he said, “and saw people running from the scene.”
A woman who lives near the shooting scene said she had been inside her home with the windows open when she heard between 10 and 12 gunshots. She said the neighborhood had problems in the past with drugs and guns, and declined to give her name because she was afraid of retribution.
When the shooting began, “all you hear is gunshots, you don’t know where the bullets are coming from,” she said. She looked outside after she heard a helicopter overhead.
“I saw cops running all over the place,” she said. “Running here, running there, all these undercover guys.”
Correction: August 29, 2015 
An earlier version of this article misstated the proximity of Mount Vernon to New York City. Mount Vernon borders the city. It is not about one mile from the city.
Rick Rojas contributed reporting, and Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
A version of this article appears in print on August 29, 2015, on page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: 2 Shot by Undercover New York City Officer in Westchester . Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe