Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters, May 4, 2015

A New York City plainclothes police officer shot in the head over the weekend as he tried to question a local man sought on gun charges died on Monday of his wounds, police and City Hall officials said.

Officer Brian Moore, 25, was shot on Saturday evening as he and his partner were seated in an unmarked car in a middle-class residential neighborhood of Queens.

He is the first officer killed in the line of duty in New York City since two uniformed officers were fatally ambushed in Brooklyn in December.

Moore had been listed in critical condition at a local hospital but died on Monday, the New York Police Department and a City Hall official said.

Moore and his partner had been trying to question Demetrius Blackwell, 35, who has an extensive criminal background, after they saw him seeming to adjust an object in his waistband, police said during a weekend news conference.

Blackwell pulled out a gun and fired several times into the vehicle, police said.

He was arrested and charged on Sunday with first-degree attempted murder, assault and other counts. Those charges were likely to be upgraded in the wake of Moore’s death.

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