A New York City police officer was shot three times in a gun battle with a man suspected in a fatal shooting minutes earlier, officials said Thursday.

The wounded officer was expected to recover and the suspected gunman was under arrest, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said at a briefing at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn.

“The officer, thank God, is here, he is well and he is expected to make a full recovery,” Shea said.

Shea said two police officers and a sergeant, all in uniform, were on patrol in Brooklyn shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday when shots were fired a few blocks away.

Minutes after the first shooting, the officers spotted a man walking briskly, Shea said. The two police officers got out of their unmarked patrol car to investigate. The man drew a gun and began shooting at the officers, who returned fire, Shea said.

One of the officers was shot three times, in the right leg, the buttocks and the back of his bullet-resistant vest, Shea said.

The 26-year-old gunman was also shot in the leg and was taken to a hospital, officials said. Charges against him were pending.

Officials believe the man who shot the officer was also the gunman in the earlier shooting.

Video of the initial shooting showed a man run up and fire shots into a white sport utility vehicle, which later crashed, police said. One man inside the SUV was killed, another was wounded and a third uninjured, police said.

All three of the men in the SUV were known gang members, as was the gunman, Shea said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, who joined police officials at the news briefing at the hospital, thanked the officers for their heroism.

“This is an example of extraordinary bravery,” de Blasio said. “Here are officers in a situation where they see someone acting suspiciously and they go and do what we depend on them to do every single day and protect their fellow New Yorkers, and they do it with courage and bravery, and they put themselves in harm’s way.”

Shea said the officer who was wounded fired nine rounds and the other officer fired 12 rounds, he said. A gun was recovered at the scene.

(AP)