By Dan Murphy
On April 20, at 210pm, during a Westchester County Police, Yonkers Police Department-FBI attempted arrest of a several individuals at 115 Elm Street, a chaotic scene ensued, resulting in a shootout, with a 27 year veteran of the Yonkers Police Department shot and in critical condition. An FBI agent on the scene shot one of the suspects and the shooter.
The attempted arrest was part of the work of the Westchester County Safe Streets Task Force Multiple arrest have been made and 1 suspect is confirmed deceased. The Yonkers Police Detective was shot in the stomach, and although he lost a lot of blood, according to YPD Commissioner John Mueller, is expected to survive.
The injured officer was transported to Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx, and published reports claim he was a few days away from his retirement. News 12 is reporting that the officer is Detective Brian Menton.
The FBI website describes the task forces as those that “pursue violent gangs through sustained, proactive, coordinated investigations to obtain prosecutions on violations such as racketeering, drug conspiracy, and firearms violations.”
Yonkers Police Commissioner John J. Mueller informed the officer “is in critical but stable condition, he has damage to his colon, intestines and his kidneys and he lost a tremendous amount of blood, but thankfully we think he is going to be ok.” Mueller also confirmed they have a number of people in custody and this is still a preliminary stage of the investigation at the press conference
“At this point of the investigation it appears that the FBI member of the Westchester Safe Streets Task Force fired and not our detective who was shot himself,” Mueller informed. “To the best of our knowledge no other officer in the task force fired their weapon to the best of our knowledge.”
Commissioner Mueller said the incident was all capture of video, they have a pretty good handle of what went down but obviously there is much more work to do. When asked Mueller also added the officers as part of the task force were not wearing body cameras because they were part of the task force. YPD officers normally wear body cameras.
The bodega, named the 115 Family Deli. Everyone is accounted for there are no suspects on the loose.
Mayor Mike Spano said, “There have been three shootings so far this year in Yonkers. When you compare our shootings to those in Rochester, who had 400 shootings last year, we have a proactive police department. In this case, our officers were going after bad guys and trying to take guns off the street. There is too much of this happening nationwide, something has to be done. Elm Street is a hot spot and has been one for a long time. It’s something we have to address.”
Mueller said that shootings in the bodega took place in a matter of seconds after going in. “Three shootings in a city this size is impressive. We have to have laws in place to take the bad guys off the street. The people of Elm Street deserve better. Most of the people in this neighborhood are law abiding and don’t want this either.”
The members of the task force were in plainclothes, 2 illegal guns were recovered after the shooting. 2 shots were fired. Video footage inside the bodega is already in the YPD’s hands, and other videos will be acquired outside the bodega.
Here is the statement from the Yonkers Police issued at 616 pm: 04/20/2022 – At approximately 2:10 PM today, members of the FBI’s Westchester Safe Streets Task Force, a multi-agency task force including members of the Yonkers Police Department, were conducting a law enforcement investigation in the area of Elm Street and Linden Street related to illegal firearms. Task force members attempted to stop several individuals who entered the bodega deli at 115 Elm Street. A Yonkers Police Detective assigned to the task force attempted to detain one of the suspects inside the store when that suspect fired a concealed handgun at the Detective, striking him in the abdomen; a Federal Agent returned fired, striking the suspect. Both Detective and suspect were removed to local area hospitals. The Detective underwent emergency surgery for life-threatening internal injuries; he is currently listed in serious but stable condition. The 28-year-old suspect was declared deceased at the hospital. Two illegal firearms were recovered at scene. Surveillance video captured the shooting event. The area is presently cordoned-off pending a joint Yonkers Police / FBI investigation. Additional information may be released as it becomes available.
