Wild Gunfight In Bx. Cops Kill Man In Shootout After Drug Bust (Sunday, June 30, 1996)

Two drug gang members led cops on a wild car chase and running gun battle through the Bronx last night that ended with one gunman's death in a hail of cop bullets, police said.
The second gunman was shot and wounded when the pair crashed their blue Chevrolet in East Tremont and engaged cops in a final firefight that scattered pedestrians, said Officer Robert Samuel, a police spokesman.
The drama began at 7:40 p.m. when cops and Drug Enforcement Administration agents descended on the Bronx Terminal Market to arrest nine members of a violent drug gang in a sting operation, Samuel said.
Seven of the suspects who had been sitting in two idling cars surrendered at the rear of the market.
But two gang members, armed with a machine pistol, an Uzi and a revolver, tried to escape by gunning the Chevrolet's engine and blasting at cops through their car windows, police said.

"These two swung their car around and began firing," said Police Chief of Department Louis Anemone.
Police fired four shots back and the men fled, speeding out of the market and onto the Grand Concourse.
The suspects raced north for nearly 20 blocks, then headed east, where they crashed into two parked cars at E. 172d St. and Fulton Ave. in the Tremont section.
Police pursued the suspects through traffic on the busy thoroughfare, dodging bullets as they drove.
After crashing, the suspects unleashed a barrage of gunfire at cops, shooting through their windshield, witnesses said.
Police fired a total of 37 rounds at the suspects. One man, in his 20s, was dead at the scene. The other was rushed to Lincoln Hospital.
The unidentified dead suspect was still lying on the street early this morning as police crime scene investigators scoured the area.
The three guns and several rounds of ammunition were found in the crashed car.
"This was a gun battle on the perpetrators' part from the beginning to end," said Anemone. "We have the shell casings taking us throughout the Bronx, leading us back to the terminal market."
Four police officers and one DEA officer were treated for trauma after the shootout.
A fifth cop suffered cuts from a bottle thrown from a roof by a suspect unrelated to the drug bust, police said.
The shooting, outside an apartment building, left neighbors terrified.
Two bystanders were treated for minor injuries. One was hurt by flying glass.
Responding to horrified onlookers who saw the shooting, Anemone said, "People like this [the gunmen] show absolutely no concern for the residents of the area."
"This was a violent drug gang that was being investigated for a series of shootings, homicides and drug deals here in the Bronx," he added.