Man Fatally Shot by Police Had Pointed Gun at Officer

By WENDY RUDERMAN

A Brooklyn man who was shot and killed by a New York City police sergeant Thursday night had pointed a loaded handgun at the sergeant before the shooting, the police said on Friday.

The shooting happened during a scuffle that stemmed from a prostitute-solicitation sting operation, the police said.

The man, Tyjuan Hill, of Red Hook, Brooklyn, was hit in the back of the head by a single bullet fired by the sergeant. Mr. Hill, 22, who had pointed a 9 millimeter semiautomatic handgun at the sergeant as he and at least one other officer tried to handcuff him, was pronounced dead at 10:09 p.m., according to Paul J. Browne, the Police Department's chief spokesman.

At the time of the shooting, the sergeant, 32, who has been on the force since 2004 and was not identified, was part of a team of officers involved in “Operation Losing Proposition,” a continuing police effort to arrest suspe cts who solicit prostitutes for sex. Mr. Browne said the department had received complaints about prostitution from residents in Carroll Gardens, prompting the police to set up a sting on the corner of Huntington and Henry Streets.

Four men, including Mr. Hill, drove to the corner in a green 1999 Mazda and approached an undercover officer posing as a prostitute. After negotiating payment for sex, the female officer signaled fellow officers to move in for arrests. Officers in two separate police cars hemmed in the Mazda and ordered the four suspects out of the car. Mr. Hill stepped out from the front-passenger seat and put his hands on the car as if to surrender and submit to a pat-down, but then fled on foot, Mr. Browne said.

A witness called 911 to report a man running down Huntington Street with what appeared to be a gun tucked in “a rear-flank waistband area,” Mr. Browne said.

Mr. Browne said that officers surrounded Mr. Hill on Hamilton Avenue, near West Ninth Street, where he resisted arrest. The sergeant struggled to wrest Mr. Hill's left hand away from his body in an attempt to handcuff him. “He's trying to get that hand out from underneath his body when Hill produced that gun,” Mr. Browne said during a press briefing at Police Headquarters.

Mr. Browne said an attempt to use pepper spray was unsuccessful. “This guy is fighting, kicking his legs, and during the attempt to subdue him, one of the other officers present did try to use pepper spray, to no effect,” he said.

The suspect's gun, which had been reported stolen in West Virginia in June 2009, was recovered at the scene with “seven live rounds in the chamber,” Mr. Browne said.

Mr. Hill was on parole after serving two years in prison on a robbery conviction, the police said.

The sergeant, who had no prior shootings in his record, was placed on desk duty pending the outcome of an investigation, which is standard procedure for p olice-involved shootings.