By MATT FLEGENHEIMER
Published: March 25, 2012
A man was critically wounded by the police Sunday night after an exchange of gunfire with one of two officers who had been following him in West Harlem, the authorities said.
The man, identified by the police as Franklyn Nunez, 23, was shot twice, in the chest and upper thigh, and was listed in stable condition at Harlem Hospital Center, the police said.
Around 6:30 p.m., according to the police, Mr. Nunez was part of a group congregating near West 144th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, but broke off and “began hurriedly walking northbound” when two uniformed officers approached.
As the officers followed, the police said, Mr. Nunez turned and fired twice, missing the officers.
One officer returned fire, striking the suspect in the chest and upper thigh, the police said. A .45-caliber Colt 1911 pistol was recovered at the scene.
In the immediate and somewhat chaotic aftermath of the shooting, some Harlem residents sought to view the shooting in the broader context of race and recent gun violence, recalling the cases of Ramarley Graham, 18, who was fatally shot by a police officer in the Bronx last month, and Trayvon Martin, 17, whose death in Florida has set off a national outcry in the weeks since he was shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer.
The victims in those shootings were unarmed.
Some residents berated officers as they gathered at the scene of the gunfire, apparently unaware of the circumstances of the shooting. One man shouted, “No justice, no peace!” — a phrase repeated often, and conveyed on signs, at recent rallies organized in the Florida teenager’s memory.
“Trayvon will raise the spirits of everyone who is shot like this,” said one woman, who gave only her first name, Jo. “But as you can see, it’s still going to happen.”
Ivan Pereira contributed reporting.
A version of this article appeared in print on March 26, 2012, on page A25 of the New York edition with the headline: Police Critically Wound Man Who Shot at Them in Harlem.
