Two narcotics cops were wounded by bullet fragments last night after a third officer shot a pit bull that attacked them in a Bronx apartment.
Neither suffered life-threatening injuries.
The Finest were part of a group of officers assigned to back up undercover narcotics cops on Davidson Avenue near Fordham Road, police spokesman Paul Browne said.
The narcotics officers were investigating drug activity at about 8 p.m., when a group of eight men approached them in a “confrontational manner,” Browne said.
Four people were arrested in connection with the incident. Three of the suspects face charges that include resisting arrest. Charges against the fourth include reckless endangerment.
A car with the backup officers pulled up and the men began to run away.
Three of the officers chased one of the suspects into an apartment building. He ran into a basement apartment, from which the pit bull charged out.
An officer fired at the dog, hitting it in the paw.
The bullet ricocheted, and fragments hit Detective Thomas Guarino, 31, a nine-year NYPD veteran, in the right cheek, and Detective Thomas McHale, 37, a 12-year veteran, in the left leg. The shooter was not hurt.
“Both officers are conscious, both are speaking and the wounds aren’t life-threatening,” Browne said.
Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly visited the officers at Jacobi Hospital last night.
Witnesses described a chaotic scene as cops rounded up the eight men.
One woman said she heard one of the suspects say, “It was f- – -ing good for him,” when he heard a cop had been wounded.
All eight were being questioned.
The dog was expected to survive Browne said.
Additional reporting by Cynthia R. Fagen and Erin Calabrese
