Mount Vernon officers on modified obligation after shot fired inside police transport van, injuring prisoner
MOUNT VERNON (WABC) — An investigation is underway right into a weird taking pictures in Mount Vernon.
Police say photographs have been fired inside a jail transport van, sending one man to the hospital with a gunshot wound.
Investigators are attempting to determine the place the gun got here from and the way it even ended up within the van.
Two Mount Vernon cops are on modified obligation because the investigation strikes ahead by the Mount Vernon Police Division and the Westchester County District Lawyer’s workplace.
“This can be a very severe incident and we take this very critically,” Chief Marcel Olifiers mentioned.
On Thursday, 5 prisoners have been loaded right into a police van for transport to the Westchester County Jail.
The car traveled lower than half a mile when a shot was fired.
“The officers reported listening to a single gunshot within the rear of the van adopted by a prisoner stating that he had been shot,” Chief Olifiers mentioned.
The van returned to police headquarters, the place a 22-caliber gun was recovered.
Police say 32-year-old Louis Soto of the Bronx had hidden the weapon, which in some way went undetected after his arrest.
Mount Vernon modified its search coverage after a scathing report final 12 months by the Justice Division, which concluded officers carried out an extreme variety of strip searches.
Police say magnatomitors will now be used to display screen prisoners.
Group activists say the taking pictures is the results of a deeper drawback throughout the division.
“So many good officers, skilled officers have left this division for higher pay or retired, you have got rookies coaching rookies proper now within the metropolis. For them to say that the DOJ excuse, the strip looking out, we’re not shopping for that,” Jesse Van with Save Mount Vernon mentioned.
Nobody else was injured within the incident.
The prisoner stays hospitalized with a gunshot to his decrease leg.
The prisoner who’s accused of firing the gun is about to be arraigned on extra expenses.
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