Two Cops Shot by Suspect on LES After Armed Robbery in Mahjong Parlor
Two NYPD sergeants were wounded while apprehending a suspect later identified as 22-year-old Joshua Dorsett, who fired a single shot that hit both men as they were trying to subdue him. Dorsett had allegedly ripped off several women inside a Chinatown mahjong parlor.
Two NYPD sergeants were shot in a wild August 1 apprehension of a robbery suspect on the Lower East Side, police said, leaving a broad tangle of crime scene tape and a phalanx of responding officers.
The suspect was identified as Joshua Dorsett, a 22 year-old Manhattan resident. He was taken into custody at the scene minutes after the robbery, and was later charged with attempted murder.
Carl Johnson and Christopher Leap, who are both in their 40s, are both expected to survive after being struck by the same bullet. Johnson was hit once in the groin, and Leap was grazed. Both officers were rushed to Bellevue. Leap was greeted with a round of applause from fellow officers when he was discharged later that day. Johnson was released on Sunday, August 4, the NYPD noted on social media.
During a press conference at Bellevue, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said that cops received a 911 call at around 4:25 p.m. about a suspect robbing women’s purses–on the second floor of a mahjong parlor at 91 Canal St.–at gunpoint.
The man soon fled the building, and headed north towards Delancey St. when he was spotted by the two sergeants at the intersection with Eldridge St. As they tried to collar him, Dorsett reportedly pulled a firearm out of his front pants pocket, and in the ensuing struggle, fired the bullet at the two officers, striking one in the groin and grazing another. Police said they recovered a .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun belonging to Dore at the scene.
Dorsett is a member of the “Up the Hill” gang, according to police, and was on probation for a drug possession charge from 2022. He had reportedly met with his parole officer on the morning of the shooting.
At the press conference, Mayor Eric Adams referenced the scourge of gun violence and his efforts to combat it, saying that the August 1 shooting illustrated why his administration had “removed more than 17,000 guns off our streets.”
A visit to the scene by Straus News revealed that the NYPD had shut down the area for a block in every direction, causing backed-up traffic headed towards the Brooklyn Bridge to redirect.