The source being the police representative or the NYT? Are you questioning the motive for the shooting or that it happened?
Local news (WABC CH 7) reports 2 plainsclothes officers on anti crime detail approached 2 men meeting desecription
of robbery suspects insde Chinese restaurent when
opened fire on officers
One in Critical condition - wounded in arm and back
Second is serious with wounds in arm and chest
The presumed motive.
“Chief Royster said that the officers were not targeted by the gunman — as occurred in the Dec. 20 fatal shooting of two officers in their patrol car in Brooklyn — but instead appeared to have been investigating a robbery when the shooting began.”
Who can say how the current atmosphere of racial animosity may have affected a decision by the gunmen to shoot at the cops?