A San Diego-area fugitive wanted for alleged child sex abuse and child pornography charges was killed in a New York City shootout with authorities that left a NYPD officer and two federal agents injured on Monday.
The gun battle took place in Manhattan’s busy Greenwich Village, where authorities were trying to arrest Charles Richard Thomas Mozdir, a 32-year-old man who had posted bail and fled after a 2012 arrest in Coronado, KTLA sister station PIX11 reported.
Injuries to the New York Police Department officer and two U.S. Marshals were not life threatening, PIX11 reported. The three agents, part of a fugitive task force, were hospitalized.
When Mozdir opened fire on the officers, who had just rung the doorbell at 177 W. 4th St. (map), the officers returned fire, killing him, authorities told PIX11. The shootout took place at a smoke shop, the station reported.
Mozdir had just days before been featured on a CNN show “The Hunt” about wanted criminals and suspected criminals.
He allegedly sexually assaulted his friends’ 7-year-old son while he was tasked with watching the feverish child; when the parents went to police, officers found evidence of child pornography at his home, CNN reported.
Mozdir was arrested and then posted bail but failed to show up for a 2012 court appearance. His car was found in a field in Georgia, according to the Coronado Police Department.
“Charles Mozdir owns a gun and is known to live off of the land,” a post of the department’s Facebook page read July 20, the same day at the CNN episode about Mozdir was broadcast.
Mozdir had been wanted on a $1 million warrant.
One federal agent was shot in the buttocks and the other was shot in the arm. The police officer was shot twice in the stomach, PIX11 reported.