HELL UP IN HARLEM! 2 COPS SHOT & 1 MAN IS DEAD AFTER A BARBECUE!

Two cops were shot early Sunday - including one saved by his bulletproof vest - in a wild Harlem gunfight sparked by the slaying of a man at a barbecue, police said.
Angel Alvarez, 23, shot and killed Luis Soto, 22, of the Bronx, and then exchanged gunfire with five responding cops - touching off a shootout in which cops fired at least 40 rounds, police said.

Alvarez was shot 21 times but survived, his family said. Three other civilians were wounded in the shooting, but their role in the gunplay was not immediately clear.

Officer Michael Tedeschi, 36, whose vest deflected a bullet to the chest, was in stable condition at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, police said.

"He owes his life to the bullet-resistant vest he was wearing," Mayor Bloomberg said at a news conference Sunday morning, fingering the bullet hole in the body armor.

Officer Alfredo Vargas, 28, who was grazed in the hand, was treated at St. Luke's Hospital and released, police said.

Witnesses to the 2:30 a.m. gunfire described the scene as bedlam, with bullets whizzing around Lenox Ave. between W. 144th and 145th Sts.

As investigators worked to piece together the chaotic chain of events, police officials confirmed that cops fired at least 40 times and Alvarez four times.

The bullet that struck Tedeschi was not fired from a police weapon, police sources said.

Police recovered a loaded .38-caliber revolver from Alvarez, who was taken to Harlem Hospital for treatment of his wounds, police said.

Officials said they found shell casings that did not match Alvarez's gun, indicating there was at least one other civilian shooter.

A detective at the scene said there were "all kinds of people shooting at each other."

The gunplay erupted as police were trying to disperse a crowd of some 500 people, many of whom had gathered for a barbecue to honor a man killed in the Bronx a few days ago.