Off-duty officer shoots and wounds man inside New York City's busy Penn Station, police say

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NEW YORK (AP) — An off-duty New York City police officer shot and wounded a man in Manhattan's Penn Station, the country’s busiest rail hub, during a chaotic confrontation that began aboard a stopped rush hour train, according to police and surveillance footage.

The officer and her husband, who is also a police officer, were waiting for a Long Island Rail Road train in plainclothes at 7 p.m. Wednesday when a 32-year-old man attempted to rob them, a spokesperson for the New York Police Department said.

Police said the female officer fired her weapon at the man, striking him in the arm. He was hospitalized in stable condition. No other injuries were reported.

The police spokesperson declined to say if the man had a weapon and did not offer other details about the alleged robbery.

An official who viewed surveillance footage told The Associated Press the man aggressively approached the couple soon after they walked onto the train and appeared to exchange heated words with the male officer.

The video, which has no sound, does not show the man brandish a weapon or touch either officer, the official said.

The male officer then shoved the man, who fell back onto the platform, then got up and punched the officer in the face, according to the official who viewed the video. The fight then moved back onto the platform, at which point the female officer can be seen firing her weapon at the man.

The official agreed to describe the surveillance video on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about an ongoing investigation. The AP has not watched the footage.

Police blocked off the area where the shooting took place, but no major disruptions to rail service at the station were reported.

The railroad station underneath Madison Square Garden can serve roughly 600,000 passengers daily via Amtrak, the New York subway system, and two regional rail lines — the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit.

In April, President Donald Trump’s administration announced it would take control of the planned $7 billion reconstruction of the aging station, sidelining the city’s mass transit agency.

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This story has been updated to correct the capitalization and spacing style of Long Island Rail Road.

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Shipkowski reported from Toms River, New Jersey.