Drunk NYPD Officer Allegedly Shot a Stranger 6 Times
NYPD officers apparently can't stop getting drunk and shooting people: Just before midnight Tuesday, Officer Brendan Cronin allegedly pulled up to a stop light in Pelham, N.Y. and fired 13 shots at a stranger's car, striking the man six times.
The New York Post reports that before the shooting, Cronin spent the day with NYPD colleagues, first taking target practice at a shooting range in the Bronx and later having drinks at a bar. As he drove home to Yonkers, Cronin reportedly stopped next to Joe "The Truck" Felice's car and began waving his gun in the air before opening fire.
Felice told police he heard the gunshots while sitting at a traffic light in the passenger seat, a source said. After realizing he had been shot, Felice slumped down and was struck five more times.
After the fusillade of gunfire, Felice looked up and noticed a bullet hole in the headrest he had been using moments before, the source said.
Felice was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was treated for wounds to his torso, lungs, and arms. He's in stable condition.
Police still aren't sure what prompted Cronin, who was so drunk he doesn't remember the incident, to shoot Felice. "We have not been able to find any link between the two persons," Pelham Police Chief Joseph Benefico told the Post. "We have nothing to link either party to each other — no road rage, nothing."
After shooting Felice, Cronin fled the scene but was so intoxicated he kept his car's hazard lights on. Pelham police tracked him to New Rochelle, where they nearly shot him after Cronin pointed his gun out his window. Eventually, Cronin surrendered and was arrested on charges of assault.
Meanwhile, outside a strip club in Somerset, N.J., NYPD Sgt. Wanda Anthony allegedly opened fire at a car containing her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend. Neither was hit, and Anthony was later pulled over and charged with DWI. She's been suspended without pay pending an investigation.
And last week, a drunk on-duty NYPD detective Jay Poggi accidentally shot his partner in the wrist.
