The NYPD has released body camera footage of an officer-involved shooting that took place during an attempted robbery of a phone store in the Morrisania section of the Bronx in May.
In the video, two officers exchanged fire with a robbery suspect, 39-year-old Calvin Peterkin, who managed to flee the scene after getting struck three times. Peterkin was arrested five days after the incident and taken to BronxCare Health System for wounds to his left arm, right hand and a graze on the chest.
Peterkin, who has a prior offense for robbery, was charged with three counts of attempted murder, gun possession and menacing. The Bronx District Attorney’s office is handling the case.
Footage shows that on May 19, a woman called NYPD dispatch to report that she thought there might be a robbery in progress at a Boost Mobile store on East 174th Street and Vyse Avenue.
Two police officers, Lewellyn Alvarez and Imran Alli were in an unmarked police vehicle two blocks away from the store, when they arrived on the scene at 6:19 p.m.
Surveillance cameras from the Boost store showed Peterkin had been threatening employees inside the store with a gun, despite attempts from an employee to keep him calm.
When Alvarez and Alli confronted Peterkin at the store’s entranceway, Peterkin insisted he did nothing wrong, before running past Alli and shielding behind a parked Mr. Softee truck.
As Alli pursued Peterkin, Alvarez ran to the front of the truck to surround the suspect, before instructing Peterkin to “put [the gun] down.”
At a close distance, Peterkin fired twice at Alvarez, before Alvarez returned fire five times. Alli also discharged his weapon three times from roughly 50 feet away, according to the bodycam footage.
Peterkin fled down Vyse Avenue, ditching the gun. Peterkin’s 9mm firearm was recovered at the scene of the incident. Neither office was injured in the incident, and the incident is still being investigated by the NYPD’s Force Investigation Division.
Reach Robbie Sequeira at rsequeira@schnepsmedia.com or (718) 260-4599. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter @bronxtimes and Facebook @bronxtimes.
