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Port Chester resident Bryan Martinez, age 30, was arrested on Thursday evening, Nov. 16 in connection with the shooting of a 27-year-old off-duty New York City Police Department officer near the Saw Mill River Parkway in Yonkers on Tuesday, Nov. 14, Yonkers Police announced.
On the day of the shooting, just before 11:30 a.m., Yonkers Police officers responded to the area of the Saw Mill River Parkway and Tompkins Avenue on a report of shots fired. At the same time, police also met with a victim at a local hospital who had been shot in the arm.
After arriving at the location of the shooting and cordoning off the area, authorities began an investigation that determined the victim, a Yonkers resident and off-duty NYPD officer, had been sitting in traffic on Tompkins Avenue waiting to enter the parkway. At this point, he was then approached from behind by Martinez, who allegedly fired around 13 shots at him before fleeing from the scene, police said.
The victim then drove himself to the hospital. After being treated, he was later released from the hospital. No other injuries or property damage was reported in connection with the incident.
The victim's name was not released by police.
Hours after the shooting occurred, Yonkers Police identified a vehicle wanted in connection with the incident and were able to find it in Port Chester with the help of the Westchester County Police Department and Westchester County Real-Time Crime Center. After finding the car, Martinez was taken into custody around 4 p.m. However, the investigation continued for a few days until Martinez was formally arrested on Thursday evening, according to Yonkers Police.
The process of taking Martinez into custody had resulted in some Port Chester schools delaying dismissal on Tuesday afternoon as a precautionary measure.
The investigation into the shooting eventually determined that the incident had been a targeted attack resulting from a personal dispute between the victim and Martinez, who knew each other as acquaintances through family members, authorities said.
Martinez is now charged with:
- Second-degree attempted murder;
- First-degree assault;
- Second-degree assault;
- Second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
He is now being held at Yonkers City Jail and will be arraigned in the City of Yonkers Criminal Court on Friday, Nov. 17.
"We do not stand for acts of violence in this City, let alone violence that amounts to gunshots being fired at an off-duty Police Officer," said Yonkers Police Commissioner Christopher Sapienza.
"I applaud our Detective Division for their outstanding work and for living up to their remarkable case-closure rate with this arrest. We thank our law enforcement partners in this County and with the Federal Bureau of Investigation for once again working with us to solve this case and remove yet another violent offender from our streets," Sapienza continued.
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