[Read our latest story on the “friendly fire” killing of the New York City police detective.]

A New York City police detective was killed on Tuesday evening after he was shot by fellow officers in a confused eruption of gunfire as they confronted a robbery suspect inside a cellphone store in Queens.

Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill called the death of the detective an “absolutely tragic case of friendly fire,” and said it was later discovered the suspect was carrying a fake gun. A sergeant was also wounded in the police fusillade.

The shooting took place at about 6:15 p.m. at a T-Mobile store in the Richmond Hill neighborhood, not far from Kennedy International Airport.

The detective and the sergeant, both experienced members of the 102nd Precinct detective squad, were responding to a report of an armed man inside the store, which is the last of a series of storefronts on the north side of Atlantic Avenue near 120th Street.