NY_POLICE

A decorated NYPD cop was killed this morning after a gun-toting burglar shot him in cold blood inside a Brooklyn apartment building, police said.

Officer Peter Figoski, a 22-year veteran, responded to a "burglary in progress" at 25 Pine Street in Cypress Hills at 2:15 a.m. and was confronted by career criminal Lamont Pride, 27, police said.

Pride and his cohort initially hid from the first responding officers and were attempting to make their escape when Figoski and his partner surprised the thugs, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a statement this morning.

Without hesitation, Pride allegedly shot Figoski once in the face and took off on foot.

Meanwhile, Figoski's partner, Glenn Estrada, was tussling with Pride's unidentified cohort nearby.

Estrada broke away and chased after Pride, slapping the cuffs on him several blocks away on Chestnut Street and Fulton Street, police said.

Figoski was taken to Jamaica Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Mayor Bloomberg said he was awoken at 4 a.m. and told about the shooting.

"No one had any expectation [Figoski] would make it," the mayor said.

At a news conference, a somber Bloomberg, who had to notify Figoski's family of the incident, said cop shootings are "the worst part about being mayor."

Bloomberg added, "I also met with Officer Figoski's former wife Paulette, and two of their daughters Carolyn, 16, and Corrine, 14, here at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, and thanked them on behalf of a deeply grateful New York City. There are two other daughters Christine, 20, and Caitlyn, 18, both who are upstate at college.

"Four daughters. I'm the father of two myself and having to tell kids of any age what happened to their father or mother is, without a doubt, the hardest thing any Mayor ever has to do."

The incident began when the two thugs wearing ski masks pounced on the door to a basement apartment occupied by a 25-year-old tenant.

When the occupant went to investigate, the assailants said they were cops, demanded cash and jewelry and knocked the tenant down with a blow to the head with a firearm.

The suspects swiped stole an inexpensive watch and $770 in cash.

Police recovered a silver 9mm Ruger semi-automatic, later deemed to be an illegal weapon, from under a parked car near the area where Pride was taken into custody.