Police Bullet Killed Man in Harlem - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

August 9, 2010, 4:15 pm

Police Bullet Killed Man in Harlem

By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM AND KAREN ZRAICK

The bullet that killed a man early Sunday at a crowded Harlem party — tearing through his heart, lungs and other organs — came from the pistol of one of four police officers who officials have said fired their weapons after gunfire broke out, officials said on Monday.

The police said the gun battle began after the man, Luis Soto, 22, was shot during a fight and his assailant turned and fired on responding officers. Mr. Soto was hit five times: in the left shoulder, the left forearm, the right thigh, the left hip, and, with the fatal shot, his left collarbone. His left forearm was grazed by a sixth bullet.

His assailant, Angel Alvarez, 23, was shot 21 times by the police officers and survived. Two officers were also wounded, the police said, one when a bullet fired by a fellow officer struck his bullet-resistant vest and another whose hand was grazed.

Three other people, believed to be bystanders, were also wounded, but it was not immediately clear who fired those shots.

The four police officers who discharged their weapons during the encounter fired a total of 46 bullets, the police said.

The bullet that killed Mr. Soto was recovered during his autopsy and turned over to the police for ballistic analysis, according to Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for Dr. Charles Hirsch, the city’s chief medical examiner. Ms. Borakove said that a tiny fragment of the same bullet was also recovered.

Ms. Borakove said that fatal bullet struck Mr. Soto in the area of his left collar bone and injured his lungs, his pulmonary artery, his heart, his diaphragm, his pancreas and a kidney.

A law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing, said that analysis showed that a bullet recovered from Mr. Soto’s body was fired by the police, but did not say that it was the fatal round.

Ms. Borakove said that the only ballistic evidence recovered from Mr. Soto’s body was the fatal bullet.

It was unclear who fired all of the other bullets that struck Mr. Soto because they all passed through his body.

Another gun was also recovered at the scene of the shooting, another official said.

The police expect to charge Mr. Alvarez in the killing.

Police Bullet Killed Man in Harlem - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com.