NYPD cop from LI recovering after Queens shooting

An NYPD officer who lives on Long Island was shot Sunday in Queens while subduing a man whose concealed gun fell to the ground and discharged, authorities said.

Officer Rodney Lewis, 40, of Freeport, was struck in the left side of the chest when the suspect's .32-caliber revolver hit the sidewalk and accidentally went off during a scuffle with police in the Ridgewood, Queens, authorities said.

The bullet struck between panels in Lewis' bullet-resistant vest and lodged in the skin under his left arm without penetrating his chest, police said. Despite the wound, they said, he managed to help his partner arrest Edwin Santana, who court records show pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and robbery in 1993.

Lewis then said, "I'm shot," and he was taken by patrol car to nearby Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn, police said.

In good spirits

He was in stable condition and is expected to make a full recovery, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference Sunday.

Lewis, a 4 1/2-year veteran of the police force, was "awake and in very good spirits, especially considering the grave possibility of what could have been this morning," Bloomberg said. "I joked with him that we had a budget crisis and we wanted him back on the job," the mayor said.

Lewis lives in Freeport with his girlfriend, their 1-year-old son and a 13-year-old son from another marriage. "We're OK, now that he's OK," said the 13-year-old, Denzel. "He's doing real good right now."

Santana, 33, was released from prison early in 2006 on the murder and robbery conviction, but authorities said he was wanted for violating his parole recently. He was being held last night at the 104th Precinct and police said charges are pending.

How it happened

The fracas began at 4:50 a.m., when Lewis and another officer responded to a reported domestic dispute at a home on Menahan Street in Ridgewood.

Marcelo Campanas, a transgendered person who goes by the name Hazel, said her live-in boyfriend, Carlos Barrios, was punching her and yelling at her, so she called a cousin, who called 911. Barrios and Campanas were arguing over money, police and relatives said. Barrios has not been located. "We started arguing, things got worse, and I had to leave the home," Campanas said in a brief talk with reporters.

Lewis and his partner, Officer Mark Bublin, arrived looking for Barrios, described as having a shaved head, but found no one at the address, police said. Meanwhile, the cousin also called Santana, apparently "to add some force to the dispute," said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

"He just wanted to scare off Carlos," said Campanas' sister, Stephanie Ortiz, 14.

Lewis and Bublin soon responded to another 911 call at a nearby address, also on Menahan Street, and saw a man with a shaved head walking down the street. It was Santana, police said, and Bublin and Lewis left their car to question him.

Witnesses said Campanas told police Santana was not their attacker, but Lewis and Bublin saw a suspicious bulge in Santana's waistband, Kelly said. "They called to him, he kept walking," Kelly said. "They went to stop him, he continued to move, they wrestled and tussled with him."

The gun then fell to the ground and fired once, authorities said. It was a 60- to 70-year-old weapon, Kelly said, fully loaded with six bullets. "Guns have a very very long shelf life," Kelly said.

With Michael Amon,

Jennifer Maloney and Eric Luu