An NYPD cop assigned to Gracie Mansion and City Hall has been suspended without pay for shooting in the head a man he suspected was a lookout in the theft of his car, officials said Wednesday.
Officer Jonathan Baez, a 12-year veteran of the force assigned to the NYPD’s Intelligence Bureau, was first stripped of his gun and shield and put on modified duty in the wake of the Monday night Bronx shooting. He was later suspended without pay as the probe continues.
No charges have yet been filed in connection to the shooting, which left the shot man clinging to life.
The officer was assigned to the Intelligence Bureau’s uniformed operations last February. His duties take him to posts at both Gracie Mansion and City Hall, officials said.
Baez was off duty tracking his stolen car when he spotted a vehicle he believed was used by a lookout working with the car thief and followed it, law enforcement sources said.
When that vehicle eventually pulled over and the driver got out on W. 231st St. near Albany Crescent in Kingsbridge about 9:15 p.m. Baez confronted him with his weapon drawn, the sources said.
At The Bronx Public, a restaurant across street, a bullet from the shooting shattered a window. (Roni Jacobson / New York Daily News)
One or two passengers remained in the suspected lookout car, and when someone inside the car rolled down the window, Baez shot the front-seat passenger in the head, the sources said.
Surveillance video obtained by the Daily News shows a man exiting an SUV and approaching a white sedan with his pistol drawn. A man who can be seen standing behind the sedan appears to kneel as the gunman approaches, the video shows.
As the footage continues, the pair falls out of sight behind the white sedan for about a minute before the sedan suddenly speeds away, revealing one man splayed across the ground as the gunman appears to straddle him.
Video footage obtained by the Daily News shows a person walking towards another person with an outstretched arm, believed to be holding a gun.
The driver of the white sedan took the wounded passenger to New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital in upper Manhattan, where he remained in critical condition Wednesday.
The wounded man’s girlfriend lives in a building just steps away from the scene and was on the phone with her boyfriend when he was shot, a neighbor told the Daily News Tuesday night.
“I heard multiple gunshots, the first two triggered me to come (into the hallway),” said 30-year-old Selina Roode. “(The wounded man’s girlfriend) was on speaker phone with her boyfriend as it was happening in real time.
Police investigating inside the The Bronx Public, a restaurant across street, a bullet from the shooting shattered a window and lodged near the ceiling. (Roni Jacobson / New York Daily News)
“He was shot as he approached the building,” Roode added. “Nothing like that has ever happened around here. The neighborhood has changed.”
At The Bronx Public, a restaurant located across street, a bullet from the shooting shattered a window and lodged near the ceiling.
“It was scary,” said bartender Ariana Melo. “The impact was loud. I jumped.”