NYPD: 4 face murder charges in officer's death (AP)

NEW YORK ? New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says authorities plan to charge at least four men with murder in the shooting death of a police officer.

Five suspects have been arrested so far in Monday's slaying of officer Peter Figoski, including the alleged gunman.

Police say the officer was shot when he interrupted an armed holdup of a suspected drug dealer in Brooklyn.

Police identified the shooter as 27-year-old Lamont Pride, of Greensboro, N.C.

Kelly says Pride has made statements implicating himself in the killing.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Four more suspects have been taken into custody following the deadly shooting of a New York Police Department officer who interrupted an armed holdup of a suspected drug den in Brooklyn, authorities said Tuesday.

Among the men was one who had fled after struggling with an officer at the shooting scene on Monday. He was captured early Tuesday at his girlfriend's apartment.

They also include two men who were initially believed to be witnesses but later identified as members of the robbery crew, plus a suspected getaway driver, said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

Officer Peter Figoski, a 22-year NYPD veteran, was shot in the face early Monday while backing up other officers who were responding to a report of a break-in at the basement apartment in Brooklyn. Investigators believe the suspects had a targeted the location because it was used for marijuana sales, Browne said.

Lamont Pride, 27, was arrested on murder charges. There was no answer to calls at a Greensboro, N.C., address where he told police he lived, and no phone listed for a Brooklyn home. It's wasn't clear when he would be arraigned, and there was no information on whether he had an attorney.

The 47-year-old Figoski's career included more than 200 arrests and 12 medals ? one of them an exceptional merit award for coming under fire in a brush with a man who would later be convicted as the city's Zodiac copycat killer of the early 1990s.

He was part of a backup team of officers who responded around 2:15 a.m., after a landlord reported a break-in at the apartment in the East New York section of Brooklyn, police said.

Two of the suspects had tried to flee through the back of the long, narrow apartment, but they couldn't find a way out and were hiding in a side room full of tools as officers walked past them and started to interview the tenant and a neighbor. They were trying to escape through the front when they ran into Figoski, police said.

He was shot once at so close a range his gold collar insignia flew off. A handprint, possibly the suspect's, was found in a pool of blood.

Figoski's partner of three years, Glenn Estrada, was struggling with the second suspect in front of the house when he heard the shot and saw the shooter take off, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. Estrada chased after Pride for blocks before capturing him, Kelly said. Estrada, a decorated 15-year veteran, was treated for a shoulder injury.

"I want to commend Officer Estrada, who had the presence of mind to focus on the man with the gun, and the courage to chase him down and capture him," Kelly said.

Figoski was taken to a hospital, where he died about five hours later. The 47-year-old officer was a divorced father of four daughters: Carolyn, 16, and Corrine, 14, both in high school, and Christine, 20, and Caitlyn, 18, who are in college upstate. Kelly and State Police Lt. Michael Greco arranged to have them flown by helicopter to Albany, N.Y., and then by state police plane to Kennedy Airport so they could be with their father.

His brother Robert Figoski is a retired police officer, and his brother-in-law is currently an officer.

"It is a family that has dedicated its lives to making this city safe," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

The Brooklyn tenant told police he heard the suspects pounding on the basement door, claiming to be police. They got in and demanded money, pistol-whipped him and took $770 in cash and a watch, police said.

Detectives were investigating whether some of the stolen money was drug money. According to police, Pride told them he was at the home to buy pot, and Browne said Pride had made statements implicating himself as the gunman.

Pride is a convicted felon who served a prison term in North Carolina and was wanted on three outstanding warrants for a shooting in Greensboro in August. The warrants charge him with possession of a firearm by a felon; assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury; and felony conspiracy.

Court records show that Pride also was arrested on a drug charge in Brooklyn in November and released. He had been due back in court on January.

Police found a silver, semi-automatic pistol under a parked car near where Pride was arrested. One round had been shot; it was still loaded with 10 more live rounds, Kelly said.

Police found a second gun stashed inside a filthy microwave at the apartment. They believed the weapon, an unloaded revolver, belonged to the at-large suspect.

A Suffolk County police cruiser kept guard Monday outside Peter Figoski's Cape Cod-style home on a quiet street in suburban West Babylon, N.Y.; no one answered the door.

"I got goosebumps all over my body when I heard the news," said Helen Krebs, who lives across the street. She said Figoski's two eldest daughters had babysat for her 5-year-old son, Matthew, and she frequently saw Figoski working on his yard.

"He raised his daughters wonderfully. They were hard-working, conscientious, wonderful, salt-of-the-earth-type people," Krebs said.

During his career, Figoski was one of the first officers to respond to a call of a man having shot his sister in their Brooklyn apartment on June 18, 1996, police said. The man, Heriberto Seda, fired homemade guns at Figoski and other officers from the windows at the start of what turned into a 3 1/2-hour standoff with officers. Seda eventually gave himself up, and police then linked him to the "Zodiac" killings that had terrorized New York six years before, in which he, using the same moniker as the infamous northern California serial killer, vowed to slay one person born under each of the 12 astrological signs.

Seda was convicted of three murders and numerous attempted murder counts. He is serving a 235-year sentence.

It was the second time this year an NYPD officer was killed on duty. Officer Alain Schaberger fell nine feet off a stoop and broke his neck while responding to a domestic violence call in Brooklyn in March. The man accused of pushing him has pleaded not guilty to murder.

The shooting Monday recalled the 2007 death of Officer Russel Timoshenko, who was shot twice in the face during a traffic stop in Brooklyn.

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Associated Press writers Frank Eltman in West Babylon, N.Y., and Samantha Gross, Colleen Long and Jennifer Peltz in New York and Martha Waggoner in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111213/ap_on_re_us/us_officer_shot

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