UPDATE: Garland Tyree Killed in Staten Island Standoff

“Relative of man who shot firefighter weeps during NYPD negotiations.” Photo courtesy of Anthony DePrimo/Twitter.

Garland Tyree — a 38-year-old felon, gangster and author from Staten Island — was shot dead by the NYPD today after a six-hour standoff during which he allegedly shot Lt. Jimmy Hayes, a 53-year-old FDNY firefighter.

The NYPD press office says it has no reports of any officers being shot in the final exchange of fire with Tyree.

“Today I die,” wrote Tyree on Facebook around 6:30 a.m. on Friday morning.

One half-hour earlier, Tyree allegedly shot Lt. Hayes twice in the hip and ankle — sending him to Richmond University Medical Center in “serious but stable condition,” says an FDNY spokesperson.

Lt. Hayes is a Staten Island resident and a 31-year veteran of the FDNY. “He was cited twice for bravery in his career,” fire officials say. Multiple news outlets have reported that he was among the first responders on 9/11.

Early Friday morning, the firefighter was part of a team that responded to a fire call at 15 Destiny Court (in the quiet, leafy neighborhood of Mariners Harbor).

Staten Island Live reports that the FDNY was called to the scene after the U.S. Marshals Service “attempted to serve a warrant to an individual.” Tyree had apparently started a fire in his house to ward off law enforcement.

“They kicked in my door and it popped off,” Tyree wrote to concerned friends responding to his initial status on Facebook.

His friends’ replies included:

• ”This is Abu godson this is what we talked about Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar Allahu Allahu Akbar”
• “Awww so sorry this is happening don’t let them win that’s what they want”
• “I ask you god to please watch over my brother in Jesus Name please protect him at this time Lord god in Jesus Name amen please shield him”

Police negotiated with Tyree for hours before he was killed.

Tyree also spoke with a reporter from DNAinfo over the phone. “I don’t know what they want,” he said. “They just kicked in my door. ... I’m a person that takes life as it comes. It is what it is. ... I’m at peace.”

A few days earlier, on August 11, Tyree posted an old photo of himself as a teenager that had appeared in a local newspaper in connection with a long-ago party shooting in Tompkinsville, Staten Island.

Tyree, who called himself “SI,” recently wrote a book about a gangster spending life in prison who “restructures his organization with help from his soldiers and his OGs” from behind bars. (Video interview below.)

Court records paint him as a career criminal and longtime leader in the Bloods gang “ 9 Trey,” reports DNAinfo.