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A loaded 9mm handgun was found near the body of Malik Canty, a 36-year-old Bloods gang member, after he was taken out by members of the U.S. Marshals Service NY/NJ Regional Fugitive Task Force in a second-floor Hamilton Avenue apartment at 6:30 a.m., state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said.
Canty had exchanged gunfire with his pursuers before he was killed, responders said.
A SWAT team then made entry into the apartment, where his body was found, they said.
No responders were injured.
Canty, who’d been released from prison last June after serving three years on a weapons conviction, was wanted on a murder warrant for the death of Renee Campbell, 31, who was beaten into a coma on West 127th St. near Lenox Avenue last Oct. 2.
Campbell, who worked as in customer service rep at the Whole Foods in Manhattan’s Union Square, remained on life support before dying eight days later.
She left behind a 4-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son – both of whom loved ones said she had with Canty.
Surveillance video captured her being punched repeatedly in the face, the NYPD said.
Canty fled, leading to a search for him that ended Wednesday morning.
Grewal said the incident was being reviewed by the Integrity Bureau within his Office of Public Integrity and Accountability. A state law adopted last year requires that the attorney general's office investigate all deaths that occur either during an encounter with police or while in custody.
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ALSO SEE: Hours earlier, Four people were killed and three more wounded in fusillade of bullets at a Paterson street corner.
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