Two NYPD officers were shot in the Bronx in what the mayor has called assassination attempts - CNN

In all, two officers were shot but survived what NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said were targeted attempts to assassinate police officers.

"By the grace of God we're not planning a funeral," Shea said.

The first shooting took place on Saturday night when a man in a black puffer jacket opened fire on two police officers sitting in a van within the confines of the 41st precinct in the Bronx. One officer was wounded and is expected to survive, police said, while a second officer in the van was not hit.

Then on Sunday morning, a man walked into the 41st precinct in the Bronx and opened fire at uniformed officers and a civilian employee just before 8 a.m., Shea said. One male lieutenant who returned fire was shot in the arm and is in stable condition, Shea said.

The suspect was not shot but laid down on the ground after he ran out of bullets, Shea said. He was then taken into custody.

"This vicious assassination attempt is the second one we've seen in 24 hours -- and an attack on our NYPD officers is an attack on ALL New Yorkers," de Blasio said in a tweet. "This despicable hatred is an attempt to divide our city and undermine our safety. We cannot and will not let that happen."

Shea said investigators are confident that the same man opened fire in both incidents.

Police said the suspect, who they did not name, had been arrested and convicted in 2002 for attempted murder. In that incident, he shot a person, carjacked a woman, crashed that vehicle and then entered into a gunfight with police officers, Shea said. He was paroled in 2017, but he has since had one recorded arrest and had a scheduled court appearance in the coming days for that arrest, Shea said.

In the Saturday night shooting, the suspect came up to the two officers sitting in a van with its emergency lights on and asked a question, Shea said. When an officer answered, the shooter pulled out a gun and fired multiple times without provocation, he said.

Shea said the officer in the driver's seat yelled, 'Gun!' when the shooter pulled out a weapon. Neither of the officers returned fire, Shea said.

The officer in the driver's seat was hit in the neck and chin area, narrowly missing the carotid artery, Shea said. The officers were able to drive off, and the suspect fled the scene.

Shea said this weekend's attacks reminded him of the 2014 murders of officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu as they sat in their patrol car.

CNN's Mark Morales and Faith Karimi contributed to this report.

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