May 29, 2008 11:47 pm US/Eastern
Slashed NYPD Officer Hailed As Hero
Quick-Thinking Cop Wounded, But Stops The Brutal Assault Of 2 Men On Chinatown Receptionist
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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An off-duty detective shot and killed one of two men who slashed him and a condominium building receptionist during an attempted robbery.
CBS
He is being hailed as a hero, the man who likely saved a woman's life. On Thursday night, an NYPD officer had a scar to bear his effort.
The man police are looking for is 32-year-old Aleksander Vacaj of Lodi, N.J. He wasn't at his Rt. 46 apartment Thursday night, or when police came looking for him early Thursday morning.
Police say Vacaj is the ex-boyfriend of Artenida Gjeli, the Chinatown condominium receptionist who was slashed in the face, hand and thigh by two men who attacked her while she was working in the lobby on Wednesday night.
The two assailants also slashed off-duty NYPD Det. Martin Carrano in the neck. Carrano was with Gjeli, following up on a domestic complaint she made about Vacaj, when the men came in requesting to rent a room.
"One of the assailants leaped over the lobby front desk and his accomplice went behind the desk and the two began their assault on the desk clerk," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said. "Detective Carrano re-entered the lobby and ended the assault by firing at the two assailants."
One suspect died at the scene, the other was seriously injured.
On Thursday, police were investigating a possible link between those suspects and Gjeli's ex-boyfriend, Vacaj.
The desk clerk said she had called Det. Carrano earlier Wednesday evening to report a series of harassing phone calls from her ex-boyfriend. The 114th Precinct, where Det. Carrano is assigned, had opened a harassment case involving the ex-boyfriend earlier this month.
Gjeli's uncle says Det. Carrano saved his niece's life.
"I don't know," Musa Gjeli said. "Somebody with knife, you know, tried to kill her and thank God undercover cop save her life."
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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