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 The shooting occurred at about 8 p.m. EST on Thursday in an
apartment building in the Bronx while three officers were conducting
routine patrols.
During the search, the officers encountered two men in a sixth-floor
stairwell. One of the men abruptly pulled out a gun and shot at the
officers, grazing one on the face and hitting another in the
abdomen, police said.
The suspect, identified as Malik Chavis, 23, fled into an apartment
on the seventh floor. When officers gained access to the apartment,
they found Chavis dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound
to the head. A semiautomatic firearm and a shotgun were found in the
unit.
Several people who where inside in the apartment at the time were
being questioned by police. The second man who was in the stairwell
when the gunfire erupted was taken into custody.
 The wounded officers, identified as Patrick Espeut, 29, and Diara
Cruz, 24, were being treated at a local hospital and are in good
condition, authorities said.
"(This) is another example of what our officers confront every
single day, keeping us safe not only on the streets of New York
City, but in the stairwells and the hallways of our public housing
developments," Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference.
The incident coincides with the trial of New York Officer Peter
Liang, who was charged with manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an
unarmed black man named Akai Gurley in a stairwell in a Brooklyn
public housing project in 2014.
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Liang, as well as Espeut and Cruz, are part of a city program that
assigns officers, many of them rookies, to so-called "vertical
patrols" of stairwells in high-crime public housing.
The practice has come under fire since Gurley's death by critics who
say it violates privacy and puts officers and residents at undue
risk.
Liang is expected to take the stand on Monday at his manslaughter
trial.
(Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Tom Brown)
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