WOUNDED COP 'INCREDIBLY LUCKY'

On The Mend, He Can't Wait To Get Back On The Street

GENE JONES became a cop because he wanted to help people and make the world
better.

Monday afternoon, the narcotics officer found out how evil the world can be.

The 36-year-old undercover officer approached a suspected crack-cocaine
dealer on a West Oak Lane street and identified himself as a cop. The
suspect pulled out a gun and shot Jones in the chest, sparking a gunfight
that continued down two streets until the suspect was arrested.

The bullet entered Jones' chest and took a downward course, missing the
officer's heart and vital organs by mere inches. As emergency room doctors
at Albert Einstein Medical Center scrambled to clear blood out of his left
lung and stabilize his blood pressure, Jones remained alert and
good-natured. Despite searing pain, worsened by doctors shoving tubes into
his chest with minimal anesthesia, Jones never flinched. He even laughed,
doctors said.

Yesterday, Jones sat in his intensive care unit bed and told doctors and
family that he was ready to get back to work.

"He wants to get out of bed and go right now," said Jones' brother and
fellow narcotics officer Stanford Troy Jones.

"He has a remarkable attitude," said Mark Kaplan, chief of trauma and
critical care at Einstein. "He should have a full recovery."

Jones, who had not been wearing a bullet-proof vest, narrowly escaped death.

The bullet entered near the heart and damaged Jones' left lung before
lodging behind his heart near his back, Kaplan said.

"It was almost like a seeing-eye bullet," Kaplan said. "The wound was a
matter of inches from his heart. He's incredibly lucky."

When Cynthia Jones rushed to her son's bedside Monday night, she said he
recognized his good fortune.

"He said God just looked out for him," Jones said.

Jones was shot during a drug sting in a neighborhood that has seen a recent
surge in crime, said Inspector Jeremiah Daley, head of the Narcotics Division.

"There have been a lot of community complaints about an increase in drug
activity in that area," Daley said.

Jones and his partner had been doing surveillance in the area of Woodstock
Street near Wyncote Avenue for the last week, Daley said.

Monday afternoon, cops arranged what they call a buy-bust operation, where
an undercover cop purchases drugs from a dealer and then other undercover
cops make an arrest, Daley said. The suspect sold an undercover cop crack
cocaine, a police source said.

"A purchase had just been made and Jones was assigned to do a takedown,"
Daley explained. "When he went to arrest the guy, [the suspect] opened fire."

A police source said Jones, who was wearing street clothes, identified
himself as a cop when he approached the suspect, later identified as David
Alexander, 20.

During the gunfight and chase, Alexander was shot in the stomach on nearby
Rittenhouse Street and arrested. He was charged yesterday with attempted
murder and other crimes. He is in stable condition at Einstein, police said.

Stanford Jones said his brother has no hesitation about returning to police
work. He said his brother loves being a cop because he wants to help people.

"We all know it's a dangerous job," he said. "We try to go out there and do
a good job."

Jones said his brother wore a bulletproof vest everyday and he didn't know
why his brother failed to put it on Monday.

Jones spent 10 years in the Army, serving in the infantry. He was involved
in combat during the Persian Gulf War and remains a reservist, his brother
said.

The eight-year veteran lives in the Northeast with his wife Joan. *