An NYPD inspector who once helped lead the department’s controversial Street Crime Unit is under investigation after he allegedly shot an armed teenager in Washington, D.C., then failed to immediately report the incident, sources said yesterday.
Inspector Robert Wheeler III, now commander of the NYPD’s Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, is being probed over the shooting of an 18-year-old in the arm during what police sources said was an attempted robbery of Wheeler on Friday night, the sources said.
Wheeler waited until early Sunday to contact NYPD officials about the incident. They, in turn, called Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department, the sources said.
The NYPD and the Metropolitan PD last night refused to identify Wheeler as the victim.
But an NYPD spokesman said both departments are “investigating the incident involving an off-duty NYPD member who reported that he was the victim of an armed-robbery attempt.”
Wheeler was driving a car in the northwest section of Washington at around 9 p.m. Friday when another vehicle, with four youths inside, pulled up behind him, law-enforcement sources said.
Two of the teens, one with a handgun, jumped out of the car and approached Wheeler in a bid to rob him.
Wheeler then allegedly fired at least one shot, wounding one teen in the arm, the sources said.
The youth, whose name was not released, was taken to a local hospital. Wheeler allegedly drove away and did not report the incident until more than 24 hours later.
Ken Bryson, a spokesman for the Metropolitan PD, said the shooting occurred when “four youths were in a car and two juveniles popped out and they attempted to rob him [the NYPD cop] at gunpoint.”
“The victim, in turn, was forced to fire at the suspects, striking one of the suspects in the arm,” Bryson said.
Wheeler could not be reached for comment last night.
He was in second in command of the Street Crime Unit, responsible for ridding city streets of thousands of illegal handguns before it was disbanded amid allegations that it had subjected minority youths to illegal stop-and-frisk searches.
Wheeler took the Street Crime Unit post in March 1999 – six weeks after Bronx cops in the unit fatally shot Amadou Diallo, the 22-year-old unarmed peddler who was hit 41 times.