Kevin Brennan, NYPD officer from LI, shot; expected to survive

A New York City police officer from New Hyde Park was in critical but stable condition Tuesday night after being shot in the head by a suspect in the East Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, authorities said.

The officer, Kevin Brennan, 29, was being treated at Bellevue Hospital. He is expected to survive.

"He is one lucky young man," said NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, holding up the bullet that had been removed from the right side of the base of the officer's skull.

The alleged shooter, Luis Ortiz, 21, of Brooklyn, was arrested Tuesday night at 390 Bushwick Ave. in the fifth-floor apartment of his uncle, a resident there. He had gone there to elude police after the shooting, authorities said. Charges were pending.

Brennan is a six-year veteran and a married father with an infant daughter.

"Thankfully tonight I think there's no reason to think her daddy won't be there to see her crawl for the first time - and in good time, dance at her wedding," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

He added, "Tonight, we have someone who's dedicated his life to protecting all of us, who has had a much too close brush with death tonight because of what appears to be an illegal gun."

Kelly and Bloomberg said the officer was conscious and talking although he was drowsy from pain medication. At one point, the officer told a nurse, "Don't touch me, it hurts," Bloomberg said.

Police said Brennan, an anti-crime officer, along with two others, was in plainclothes and had responded to a public housing address Tuesday night at about 9 p.m.

The three plainclothes officers had gone to the scene in response to a call of shots fired and came upon three individuals running, one of whom they knew from past encounters was Ortiz. Brennan chased Ortiz into one of the apartment buildings. He went in first and his partners followed but had they had trouble getting the door open after it closed behind him. They heard shots fired, authorities said, and when they came through, found Brennan on the floor of the hallway inside 370 Bushwick Ave.

Ortiz, who was not hit, fled to a fifth-floor apartment in another building in the complex, authorities said.

Ortiz is wanted in connection with a homicide on New Year's Day, Kelly said.

Hundreds of NYPD officers flooded the area where the shooting took place at 370 Bushwick Ave., searching through a public housing complex consisting of eight buildings run by the New York City Housing Authority for a suspect.

The search was under way with multiple canine units, emergency service officers and helicopters flying overhead. Police were questioning people coming in and out of the complex. At about 10:20 p.m., about 50 officers filed into one of the buildings for an unknown reason.

Several residents said the sound of police helicopters buzzing overhead was their first indication that something had happened at the complex.