The man MTA cops fatally shot in Queens after he allegedly groped a woman was an armed parolee who had been carrying an Uzi, authorities said.
Bashe McDaniel, 52, of East Harlem, had 12 previous arrests, five for misdemeanors and seven of them felonies, and was out on parole for a gun charge, MTA Police said.
Cops are now probing how and where McDaniel obtained the semi-automatic.
The deadly episode unfolded at around 10:15 p.m. Friday when a 19-year-old woman went to the District 3 MTA command near Jamaica Station and complained to two cops that a man “touched her breast” and blocked her path, MTA Police said at a news conference.
“She took a picture of him and asked the police officers to make an arrest. She gave a detailed statement. The officers went out approximately two minutes after she came into the district. They found the male. The male had a very distinctive jacket on,” said MTA Chief of Police John Mueller, adding “He had a large letter ‘B’ on his jacket.”
The MTA cops stopped the man, who was wearing a baseball cap with the word “Killa” on it, near 91st Avenue and Sutphin Boulevard.
“They actually showed him a picture of himself” that the victim took, Mueller noted.
“At that point they attempt to place him under arrest. There’s a prolonged struggle. He refused to put his hands behind his back,” the MTA police chief said, adding, “they taze him, and at some point during the struggle, a shot is fired from the perpetrator.”
A shootout erupted, and the suspect was shot in the head, according to police and sources.
The officers returned fire and the suspect died at the scene, the MTA police chief said, “and at that point they [the officers] are able to move him away…and they recover a submachine gun under his body,” Mueller said.
The weapon had a 30-round clip, authorities said. The officers were “taken to a local hospital” where they were treated for trauma, the MTA police chief noted.
The Friday incident marked the third deadly shooting by the MTA Police Department in its 26-year history, police said. It is also only the fifth time an MTA officer has fired a weapon in the line of duty. The most recent MTA officer-involved shooting prior to Friday’s incident was in March 2011, authorities said.