ZHAMIR WRIGHT

Zhamir Wright

(Provided by the Syracuse Police Department)

A vacant house at 1704 E. Fayette St. is seen in this 2014 Google screenshot. Officers with the department's Crime Reduction Team were patrolling in the area Friday when they approached a group of people loitering at the house. An officer later shot at an armed suspect.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse police have identified the officer who shot at -- but did not hit -- an armed suspect Friday.

Officer Vallon Smith fired his service gun after Zhamir A. Wright pointed a Hi-Point 9mm semi-automatic handgun at him, city police said in a news release Sunday.

Smith and Officer William LaShomb, members of the Syracuse Police Department's Crime Reduction Team, were patrolling the 1700 block of East Fayette Street at 5:14 p.m. Friday when they approached three people loitering in front of a vacant house at 1704 E. Fayette St. The property is an abandoned home "known to be frequented by drug users, dealers and those involved in gambling and weapons possessions," police Lt. Geno Turo said in the news release.

When Smith and LaShomb approached the people loitering at the house, they saw one man -- later identified as Zhamir Wright -- with a handgun in his waistband, police said.

As the officers tried to arrest Wright, Wright struggled with Officer Smith, police said. Wright then ran east along East Fayette Street. Officers ran after him.

During the foot chase, police said, Wright took the handgun from his waistband, turned toward Smith and pointed the gun at him.

"Officer Smith, then fearing for his life, withdrew his service weapon and fired one shot at Wright, missing him," Turo said in the news release.

Smith, LaShomb and Crime Reduction Team members, Officers Brent Potts and Sean Thomas, helped arrest Wright behind 1809 E. Fayette St.

Wright, 20, of 326 Allen St., Syracuse, was charged with menacing a police officer, two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, and one count each of criminal possession of a firearm, resisting arrest, seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, promoting prison contraband and unlawful possession of marijuana. He also was arrested on an outstanding warrant for violation of probation.

Wright remained Sunday night at the Onondaga County Justice Center jail without bail.

Smith was in the news over the last week and a half after he arrested OG and local anti-violence activist Maurice "Mo" Crawley.

Crawley, 52, was arrested July 28 in the 100 block of South Avenue while filming Smith and another officer as they made a drug-related arrest.

The video of the confrontation made by Crawley on Facebook prompted a protest by a local chapter of the anti-police-violence group Black Lives Matter the next day. The video has so far received more than 122,000 views on YouTube.

Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick announced the charges filed by the Syracuse Police Department would be dropped, but a new harassment charge would be filed against Crawley.

The DA said Crawley had been stalking Smith after the officer issued him a ticket, possibly related to a noise complaint. Since then, Fitzpatrick said there have been "at least a dozen" incidents where Crawley harassed the officer.

While Fitzpatrick said harassment is a proper charge for Crawley, the DA also said he disagreed with how Smith handled the incident.

"He made a mistake," Fitzpatrick said at a news conference Friday. "He overreacted, and he will suffer the consequences...with Chief Fowler."

LaShomb also was in the news earlier this year after he discharged his weapon once at a suicidal man who pelted officers with glass bottles and other items, then burst out of an apartment holding a knife. The bullet grazed the man's hand and leg. A grand jury indicted the suicidal man, who will be sentenced to prison later this month, and cleared LaShomb of any wrongdoing.