Man wanted for shooting cop is found

Pocono Mountains, PA — Pennsylvania State Troopers have apprehended suspected New York City cop-shooter Dexter Bostic in the Poconos and are believed to be in hot pursuit of the other suspect.

Bostic, a 34-year-old ex-convict, and a second suspect, Robert J. Ellis, 34, have been the subjects of a far-reaching manhunt since the monday morning shooting that left one officer with life-threatening injuries.

The critically injured officer, Belarus-born Russel Timoshenko, 23, is paralyzed, has brain swelling and cannot breathe on his own, Assistant District Attorney Anna-Siegga Nicolazzi said at an appearance for the third suspect, held today in a courtroom packed with police officers.

The defendant, Lee Woods, was ordered held without bail on charges of attempted murder, assault of a police officer, weapon possession and other counts.

The court complaint says Woods is accused of driving the SUV and the other suspects of being the shooters. “There’s nothing here to suggest that he shared the intent to harm these police officers,” said his attorney, Patrick Magaro.

The other wounded officer, Herman Yan, saved by his bullet-resistant vest, was released from the hospital Tuesday.

Both Bostic and Ellis are parolees with long records of violent crime, according to police. Bostic, also known as Marcus Jackson and Dexter Bostic, is a former employee of a Long Island car dealership where the BMW sport utility vehicle was stolen, police said.

Bostic’s relatives implored him to turn himself in and said their thoughts were with the officers.

“We’re praying that they have a speedy recovery, that everything will be back to normal,” Nicole Bostic, the suspect’s sister, told WCBS-TV Tuesday night. “Our prayers and our hearts are going out to their families.”

Anthony Ricco, the attorney for Bostic’s family, also made an on-air plea for Bostic to call home and arrange to turn himself in.

“Our agenda is to get him in; our agenda is not to have him tried on television,” he said on Fox 5 News. “Everyone is presumed to be innocent. We want to give him confidence that he will be treated fairly, not unfairly.”

“The reality is if anyone is convicted in a case like this, they’re getting life in prison even if they’ve never been arrested before,” added Ricco.

Investigators recovered three weapons they say were carried by the suspects: a .45-caliber handgun, a 9mm pistol and a Tec-9 automatic pistol. Authorities were still investigating the origin of the guns.

The shooting occurred at 2:30 a.m. Monday in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights section, after the two officers used a laptop computer in their marked patrol car to do a random check of the license plates on the BMW. After discovering the plates didn’t match the vehicle, they turned on their flashing lights and pulled the SUV over.

As the uniformed officers followed procedure by approaching from either side of the SUV, investigators believe, two of the occupants simultaneously opened fire without warning, hitting Timoshenko first.

Investigators later determined that the SUV, and the plates from the second vehicle, had been stolen from Five Towns Mitsubishi in Inwood, N.Y., on Long Island near the Queens border. Inside it were two .45-caliber shell casings and trash from a recent fast-food meal, police said.