Cop shoots Elmont suspect while off duty

An off-duty Nassau police officer foiled the holdup of an Elmont gas station Wednesday morning when he shot and wounded a man carrying what turned out to be a simulated handgun, authorities said.

Surveillance footage from the Liberty Gas Station at Stone Street and Hempstead Turnpike shows the encounter, which began around 7:05 a.m. inside the station's convenience store when a hooded man walked around the counter and pointed what looked like a pistol at the cashier's head.

According to the cashier, Abdul Mannan, the man addressed him with an expletive and told him to "give me all the money or I'll kill you."

Mannan put his hands up and stood back while the man rifled a cash drawer, spilling dollars on the floor.

When the man left the shop, Mannan said he followed, shouting, "Please, please, somebody robbed me!"

Surveillance footage shows the man walking casually across the parking lot before moving out of the camera's range. Then the off-duty officer, dressed in jeans and sneakers, enters the picture.

The footage shows him pursuing the suspect until the officer lowers into a shooting crouch. According to Mannan, the officer shouted, "Stop! Stop! Stop!"

Police said the suspect turned and pointed his weapon at the officer, who then fired. Officials would not say how many shots were fired.

Mannan said the officer fired twice.

The wounded suspect, 26, fled and was later found by Nassau officers hiding in a parked car, police said. He had been hit once.

He was hospitalized with nonlife-threatening injuries. Police have not yet released his name or charged him with a crime.

Police recovered the man's weapon. They described it as a simulated handgun, possibly a BB gun.

"He did a great job," Mannan of the unnamed officer.