Man Critically Hurt After Being Shot by Officers in Brooklyn, Police Say

A man who was released from prison last week was in critical condition late Tuesday after being shot multiple times by police officers who were on patrol in Brooklyn when they encountered him firing at a second man, the police said.

The episode occurred just before 8 p.m. near Baltic and Hoyt Streets outside the Gowanus Houses public housing complex, the police said.

Two plainclothes police officers in an unmarked car were patrolling the area, on the edge of the Boerum Hill neighborhood, when they saw one man shooting at another, the police said.

“The officers immediately identified themselves as police, and gave multiple orders to drop the weapon,” Terence A. Monahan, the Police Department’s chief of department said at a news conference late Tuesday. When he failed to do so, Chief Monahan said, “both officers fired numerous rounds” at the man, striking him several times.

The man, whose name was not immediately released, was taken to Brooklyn Hospital Center in critical condition, the police said.

The officers, part of an anti-crime unit, were not hurt but were taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital for a routine evaluation, the police said.

A 9-millimeter handgun and shell casing were recovered at the scene, Chief Monahan said, adding that the officers involved in the shooting would need to be interviewed to determine whether the man had fired at them.

Chief Monahan said that the man who was shot had been released from prison last week and was on parole after serving a five-year sentence for robbery. He has “an extensive criminal history, including multiple violent felony convictions” that he had been on parole for in the past, the chief said.

The police were still looking for the second man involved in the initial shooting episode, officials said.

At about 10 p.m., before Chief Monahan addressed reporters, a stretch of Baltic Street with the housing complex buildings on either side was blocked off by police tape and vehicles, as officers flooded the block and helicopters buzzed overhead.

Elvis Peguero, the owner of the Los Tios Deli Grocery on Hoyt Street, said he had heard “a lot of shots” — as many as 20, he guessed — just before 8 p.m. in what sounded like volleys coming from both sides of Baltic Street. Within minutes, he said, police officers were swarming the area.

Apartment courtyards on either side of Baltic Street were also taped off, and some residents of the complex said they had been locked out of their buildings with no word on when they would be allowed back inside.

Shortly after 10:30 p.m., a line of officers, some in riot gear and some leading police dogs, walked across a courtyard south of Baltic Street facing the shooting site.

Shanduke McPhatter, a Brooklyn anti-gang activist, said that he personally knew the wounded man, but he declined to offer his name without the family’s consent.

“The family is a family that helps the community,” Mr. McPhatter said. “The family is a family that has been out here mediating conflicts and helping provide resources for this community.”

He said it was important to get an accounting of the police response to whatever happened.

“We just want to get the facts, and that’s what we’re focused on,” Mr. McPhatter said.

Last month, an anti-crime officer on patrol in the Bronx was killed by so-called friendly fire while struggling with a suspect.