Off-duty NYPD officer fighting for his life after being shot

NEW YORK - Community and religious leaders came together in Brooklyn on Sunday night to hold a prayer service for the off-duty NYPD officer who was shot by an unknown robber in East New York.

Adeed Fayaz, a 5-year veteran of the NYPD, a father, and a husband, was shot in the head and critically injured during an attempted robbery on Saturday night. 

"As we see so often in this city, too many illegal guns are in the hands of bad people doing bad things," Mayor Eric Adams said at a press conference.

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According to investigators, Fayaz was with his brother-in-law, meeting someone to purchase a vehicle on Saturday evening as part of an arrangement made on Facebook Marketplace. The gunman allegedly tried to rob Fayaz and shot him in the head.

The call of a man shot came in just before 7 p.m. from Ruby St. in the East New York section.

The officer had gone with his brother-in-law to meet a man who had listed a Honda Pilot for sale for $24,000 on Facebook Marketplace.

Police say when they got there the man was walking them to a driveway and jokingly asked, "Are you guys carrying a gun?"  Both men answered, "No."

That's when police say the man put the officer in a headlock and pointed a gun at his head and demanded the money.

As the officer broke free, the gunman fired, hitting him in the head.

The gunman started to run away and kept firing as he took off.

The brother-in-law grabbed the officer's gun and started firing back.

The gunman jumped into the driver's seat of a black BMW and drove off.  Police were able to identify that a woman who lives in the nearby Pink Houses was the owner of the car.  The NYPD determined that she was the mother of the gunman.

Police say he was later seen getting out of the car at a Dept. of Sanitation facility at 130th St. and Park Ave. in Manhattan.  He then was seen getting into a car with a woman and five young children were seen leaving 1948 Park Ave. and driving off in a car.

They traced the car to a Days Inn in Nanuet, New York.

When police got to the second-floor room of the hotel, they found Jones, the woman, and 5 children, ranging in age from 6 months to 11 years old.  The woman was questioned but not charged.