NYPD officer shoots armed man in Bronx deli shootout | What we know

I want to tell you about a police-involved shooting in the Bronx, a deli dispute. Police say a 49-year-old man pointed a gun at people inside, then fired toward two officers. I spoke about it just a few minutes ago with Francis Wang. Let's take a look. All right, Frances, so we got this call about a police-involved shooting yesterday afternoon, and then we started to get some more details and learning some new information this morning. What's going on? Yeah, so just so you know, police actually, they didn't respond to a 911 call of any sorts. They were actually on patrol when they saw the man, who we now know is 49-year-old Victor Soto, banging a gun against the window of a deli. Is this part of the scene here? This is part of the scene, and this is actually the patrol vehicle those officers were in. When they essentially drove up on this guy, this is the deli you're seeing here, so he was banging the gun on some of those windows, you see the evidence markers because ultimately what happened was a shootout between this suspect, Victor Soto, and those officers. And so what do we know kind of led up to it? I mean, obviously the reports are and what police are saying is that he's got this gun and he's banging on the window. But did something happen before that? Was he in an argument with somebody? I mean, what do we know about that? Yeah, so he was allegedly in some sort of dispute with several of the customers at that deli, Sammy Gourmet Deli. This is in the Bronx, I believe on Bainbridge Avenue and 194th In the Fordham section and at one point in In that argument with the customers, this man pulls out a gun and points it at the customers, which, again, you can imagine, this is a busy deli, Monday afternoon around three o'clock, the customers were terrified, they ducked for cover, and we're not sure exactly what led Soto out of the deli, but that's where officers found him, banging that gun against the windows. They say they told him to drop the weapon. Is this the gun? This is the gun, police. Okay, so they say he does this and then there's a sort of an exchange of gunfire and I think we have, okay, so this looks like some kind of like scene video that happened pretty soon after. Yeah, and this is the deli right here and because officers were already there on patrol. The response was, it was quite quick. So the assistant chief actually kind of lays out a timeline of why he defended the officer's actions and why he said they were forced to shoot. All right, let's listen. At this point, two uniformed officers in a marked NYPD vehicle arrive on scene, observe the subject's actions, and immediately issue verbal commands for the subject to drop the weapon The subject not only disregarded the order to drop the weapon, but instead pointed the firearms directly at the officers. At this point, there is an exchange of gunfire between the officers and the subject As the subject is discharging his weapon, he is continuing northbound and firing behind him in broad daylight. Oh, wow. So they're saying that they told him to drop the gun, the gunfire is exchanged, and then he's kind of like shooting back toward them as they're, you know, as they're kind of moving on. Wow, that's amazing. And the assistant chief had said there were still people out and about. Remember, this is a Monday afternoon. So we have learned more about the suspect through the police, but also talking to people in the area. We've learned he has a criminal history. He's been arrested eight times. So this is, I mean, you know, you don't want to say like a recidivism sort of directly, but this is somebody who does have a lengthy criminal record. I'm not necessarily out on Bail at the moment, but kind of has a lengthy criminal history, is that right? Yeah, and faced charges and was arrested for multiple assaults, as well as possession of a firearm. Police also said he has a well-documented history. This is not him. This is a witness we spoke with. We'll play that in a sec. But police also said he has a well-documented history dealing with mental illness. Neighbors in the area say that they all know who he is and that he's actually known to get into arguments. And so that was kind of the context leading up to what we learned about him arguing with customers in the del This is not someone who knew him, this is not a neighbor per se, this is just someone who was in the area when this unfolded, so an eyewitness. So he said the police came there real fast and that was the response. So where are we at today? The suspect is in the hospital or is he in custody? What's going on? So he was shot several times. He was taken to the hospital where he is stable. He's expected to recover. What we don't know is how many times he was shot, how severe those injuries are. We know he's going to recover, but we still don't know the extent of his injuries. And also they're looking into the surveillance footage. As you can imagine, there were a lot of cameras inside the deli and out. So they're using the footage. They're using the eyewitness accounts. They're trying to figure out. Who fired first? That's always kind of the question in these shootouts. And ultimately, what happened here? There's a body camera video is theoretically going to be available at some point. Yes, yes. All right. Well, we'll look forward to the release of that, possibly. Frances, thank you very much. Thanks, Dan.