One Arrested, Two Sought in Police Shooting

Crown Heights, Brooklyn — One man was arrested today in connection with the shooting on Monday of two New York City police officers in Brooklyn during a traffic stop. Lee Wood, 29, evidently the previously unidentified third man in the car that the officers stopped, was taken into custody, the police said.

They are still seeking two others, including a former convict. The man, Dexter Bostic, 34, worked at the auto dealership on Long Island from which the BMW sport utility vehicle that the two officers had stopped had been stolen, a law enforcement official said. It is unclear when Mr. Bostic worked at the dealership.

The police said Mr. Bostic and another man, who has been identified as Robert Ellis, 34, were the shooters in the incident. In all, the police say there were three men in the vehicle.

Mr. Bostic had last lived in an apartment on Cornaga Avenue in the Rockaway section of Queens, law enforcement officials said, although the police had not narrowed their search for him this morning. Mr. Bostic’s name surfaced on Monday as the police engaged in a wide investigation to find the people who had shot Officers Russel Timoshenko, 23, and Herman Yan, 26. Mr. Timoshenko, who was shot in the mouth and neck, was gravely injured and was on life support at Kings County Medical Center in Brooklyn. Mr. Yan was struck in the arm and chest his bullet-resistant vest possibly saving his life and was expected to recover.

Mr. Bostic was released from prison in 2003 after serving a three-year prison term for his role in an assault in Brooklyn. The police said Mr. Bostic and another man had tried to rob a couple on the street in the East New York section of Brooklyn, threatening them with physical harm.

When the victims resisted, the man with Mr. Bostic fired a gun, but hit no one. The gunman escaped, but a passing police officer arrested Mr. Bostic who pleaded guilty to a felony in the case.

He also served time earlier, for a rape in Queens.

The shooting Monday took place during a routine, but potentially deadly, police activity: stopping a car. The hands of those in the stopped vehicle are hidden, and they can come out shooting, surprising an officer who only sought to check a minor infraction.

The two police officers noted a black BMW sport utility vehicle early Monday. They checked the license plate on a computer, saw that it belonged on another car, and pulled the vehicle over. The officers — did everything right, the police said, but the men in the car shot through its open windows, without warning, firing wildly.

Officer Yan moved to help his fallen partner, managing to squeeze off at least 10 shots, but was hit in the left forearm and in the chest — a round that was stopped by his bullet-resistant vest, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said.

“One will recover, and one is clinging to life,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said of the two officers on Monday.

The officers were partners in the 71st Precinct, which covers Prospect-Lefferts Gardens and the southern edge of Crown Heights. Officer Timoshenko, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union who joined the force a year and a half ago, and Officer Yan, who joined in 2004, were taken to Kings County Hospital by colleagues — Officer Timoshenko by detectives who happened to be nearby investigating a murder, Officer Yan by officers in a radio car.

The BMW sped off and was found abandoned about four blocks away. The police found clothing and three discarded guns — a 9-millimeter pistol, a .45-caliber handgun and a Tec-9 machine pistol — near the abandoned vehicle, which had been stolen Sunday from a dealership in Inwood on Long Island, the police said.

Much of the night’s events — including portions of the shooting and then the abandonment of the S.U.V. — were captured on different surveillance cameras, the police said. One official said there were “at least three or four” views from those cameras.

Throughout the day Monday, in a neighborhood where crime is declining but where stubborn pockets of danger persist, the police used bloodhounds, helicopters and officers from the Emergency Service Unit to search sewers and rooftops for evidence as they looked for the three suspects.

Investigators talked to several people in police station houses in Brooklyn and Queens, working to close in on suspects.

“The terrible events of this morning are proof once again of that fundamental truth we have learned, again and again: Guns, when they fall in the hands of the wrong people, have tragic consequences,” Mayor Bloomberg said on Monday. “Two partners, who set out this midnight to keep us safe, were shot while helping deliver the ever-lower crime rate that makes life as we know it in New York possible.”

Car stops have proved over the past decade to be potentially lethal encounters for police officers, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In 2005, the most recent year for which numbers were available, more officers were killed in traffic pursuits and stops involving suspected felons than in any other way. Fifteen of the 55 officers killed in 2005 died that way.

“Traffic stops are the most dangerous thing a cop can do, by far,” said David S. Smith, a former lieutenant with the Arizona Department of Public Safety who now trains officers in how to deal with such encounters. “The officer rarely knows the true mindset or the potential criminal activity that the driver and passengers may be engaged in,” he said.

Officer Timoshenko, who came to the United States about 15 years ago, was a promising management student at City College before he entered the police academy. Officer Yan is the son of a former seamstress from Hong Kong. Both young officers still live in the city where they grew up — Officer Timoshenko on Staten Island and Officer Yan in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.

Officer Timoshenko graduated from the academy a year ago and was sent to the 71st Precinct after spending a few months in the neighboring 70th Precinct. He has made 15 arrests, three for felonies, Mr. Kelly said. Officer Yan has made 36 arrests in the 71st Precinct, where he has spent his career, Mr. Kelly said.

Guy Marcelus, a former classmate at City College, said Officer Timoshenko gave his whole heart to his career. “It was his love, his passion,” Mr. Marcelus said. “Fighting crime, doing something positive.”

The officers were in uniform in a marked car when they saw the BMW going west on Lefferts Avenue about 2:30 a.m. They checked its license plate on their dashboard-mounted computer and found the plates should have been on a Mitsubishi. As the BMW turned north onto Rogers Avenue, the officers signaled for the driver to pull over to the right, and the BMW nosed to the curb, Mr. Kelly said.

Officer Timoshenko got out on the passenger’s side and walked toward the same side of the BMW. Officer Yan followed a few steps behind him, approaching the BMW on its driver’s side. As Officer Timoshenko got nearer, shots exploded out of the window, the police said, hitting him twice and sending him sprawling backward.

Officer Yan then opened fire, and someone in the car fired at him, Mr. Kelly said. The bullets that hit him knocked him back, but he stayed on his feet and called a for urgent assistance — on his radio, the police said.

A car with three detectives from the 71st Precinct who had been nearby investigating a murder heard the shots and saw people running from the scene. Then they saw Officers Timoshenko and Yan on the ground, the officials said. Officer Yan managed to tell them that the BMW had driven north, and that he had punched its license plate into his computer.

The BMW was found double-parked on the northbound side of Kingston Avenue, four blocks away; investigators found some food near the S.U.V. that might yield clues, and four shell casings inside it, the police said. Officers were seen removing the BMW’s windows yesterday before towing it away.

Nearby, at 595 Lefferts Avenue, investigators found what appeared to be a red sweatshirt in a black garbage bag in the driveway, officials said. The three guns were found nearby. Several surveillance cameras poked from the walls of nearby homes.

“Three guys got out of a car,” said a man who works in the management office of a building on Kingston Avenue and who said he had viewed one of the surveillance tapes. “One guy was carrying a shirt. They just walked away; they just calmly walked away.”

Both the car and the license plates were stolen from the Five Towns Mitsubishi dealership in Inwood. The police said the license plate came from a Mitsubishi that had been left at the shop for service. The BMW was parked adjacent to the Mitsubishi when it was last seen, sometime on Sunday, the police said.

Sal Braccio, 53, an auto technician at the shop, said investigators came in Monday looking for the keys to the BMW. “When I got in the whole place was locked down,” he said. “They were waiting for the salesmen to come in.” He added: “A BMW is very hard to jump-start.”

Ann Farmer, Andy Newman and Michael Wilson contributed reporting.