A man wanted for beating up the mother of his child in public exchanged gunfire with cops in a Harlem apartment Wednesday before he apparently shot himself in the head, officials said.
The suspect — identified by police sources as 23-year-old Antonio Armstrong — was inside a fifth-floor apartment on West 147th Street near Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard around 8:30 a.m. when police arrived to serve a warrant on a felony charge for criminal contempt related to the domestic violence case, according to Chief of Department Rodney Harrison.
The officers were at the doorway when the suspect pulled out a gun and opened fire toward them, Harrison said. No one was struck.
The officers returned fire, and then “began a tactical retreat down the hallway,” Harrison said.
The NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit and Hostage Negotiation Team were called to the scene, the chief said.
“Negotiators began a dialogue with a suspect,” Harrison said. “Over time, the suspect did not respond, at which time, [the] Emergency Service Unit was able to gain a visual inside of the apartment.”
“The suspect appeared to be lying on the ground, inside the living room,” he said. “The officers then entered the apartment, and observed the suspect motionless on the floor. The individual appeared to have a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.”
Investigators were looking to arrest Armstrong for allegedly beating his 25-year-old ex-girlfriend and walking off with their 9-month-old daughter in a stroller on June 7, according to police sources.
The woman was outside a building on Frederick Douglass Boulevard near West 131st Street when he punched her in the back of the head — and then kicked her in the stomach and groin when she fell to the ground, the sources said.
When she tried to get up, he allegedly told her that if she grabbed their daughter, he would knock her out.
He then walked off with the infant in the stroller, according to the sources.
Armstrong was pronounced dead on the scene by EMS, and his guns were recovered from inside the apartment.
Harrison said a woman who was in the apartment throughout the ordeal appeared to be connected to Armstrong, but did not know their exact relationship.
Armstrong was also wanted for questioning in connection to the Sept. 13 fatal shooting of Menke Woodard-Collins, 24, on West 139th Street near Malcolm X Boulevard, according to the sources.
The circumstances of that shooting remained unclear Wednesday.
Cops were also looking to question Armstrong in connection to an April 30 non-fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy — who was struck in the left leg — on West 134th Street near Amsterdam Avenue, the sources said.