Wanted gunman was police chief's brother

Police spent months searching for a wanted gunman only to discover he was the mystery half-brother of their precinct commander, it emerged today.

Every day for weeks Inspector Philip Banks walked past the mugshot of the wanted shooting suspect pinned to the wall of the New York police station he commands.

But he was stunned to find out that the wanted man was the half brother he never knew he had.

“I never knew the existence of this individual, so it’s quite a shock, to say the least,” the 41-year-old officer told the New York Daily News.

But he insisted: “I don’t consider this person my brother.”

The relationship only came to Inspector Banks’s attention last week when the wanted man, Neron Banks, was arrested.

Banks, 27, was wanted in connection with the shooting of a retired policeman’s son on August 24, but denies the charge.

After his arrest, Banks told his lawyer about his police officer brother, who only last week was promoted to commander of the 81st Precinct, in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

The lawyer contacted Inspector Banks, who called his father, getting the answer: “We’ve got to talk.”

While the New York Police Department stressed it had no reason to believe Inspector Banks deliberately protected his half-brother, a spokesman said the case was under investigation.

Inspector Banks said: “I think my reputation speaks for itself.

“I don’t protect people who do things allegedly wrong, no matter who you are.”