The NYPD cop who was shot by a Queens gunman was released from the hospital early Wednesday afternoon.
Officer Rich Wong, with family and friends by his side, waved to a crowd of fellow police officers as he was wheeled out of Jamaica Hospital Wednesday afternoon and met with salutes and a thunder of claps.
Kathryn McKenzie, a doctor who helped treat the officer, said that a tourniquet had already been placed on Wong’s wound by his partner before Wong arrived at the hospital. Wong was said to be in “great spirits” as he was worked on by doctors.
“He has an injury to his leg and it’s going to take some time to recover from that, but it’s better than being in critical [condition],” she said. “Couple inches in a different direction, it would have been a different story — [his leg] could’ve been amputated or he could’ve lost his life.”
Wong was shot in the leg after responding to a robbery near Jamaica Ave. and 164th St. in Jamaica around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday evening by Gary “Green Eyes” Worthy, who had just knocked off two stores on Hillside Ave. and Guy Brewer Blvd. Worthy was on lifetime parole and had served more than 14 years in prison after being convicted of drugs and weapons possession and burglary in 2009. He was released in 2021.
A witness pointed out Worthy to Wong and his partner when they responded to the scene. Worthy fired one shot in the cops’ direction, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said. A wounded Wong fired back, fatally shooting Worthy in the face, cops said.
“He was coming out of the Target. The cop told him about four times, ‘Do not run! Do not run!’ After that a shot rang out,” Henry Jaikeren, a street vendor working across the street at the time, told the Daily News Tuesday. “The guy spun around and the cop shot him four more times in the belly. He was dead on the ground.”
Patrick Hendry, the president of the Police Benevolent Association union, said on Wednesday following Wong’s release from the hospital, that the criminal justice system is “failing New Yorkers.”
“When he responded to that robbery in progress,” Hendry said, “he confronted this individual and he didn’t know what he was confronting. He didn’t know he was confronting someone who was arrested 17 times…and someone who was arrested seven times while he was on lifetime parole. Why was he out on the street? Each time he was arrested, why wasn’t he remanded?”
Along with Wong, a 26-year-old woman who was shopping on Jamaica Ave. was also shot in the leg. The woman was behind Wong and his partner when she was hit, cops said.
“She’s going to do OK,” McKenzie said, “very similar to the officer, very similar recovery but she is going to do OK.”