Internal
Affairs officers are investigating after an off-duty NYPD cop appears to have
randomly opened fire at a passing car Tuesday night in Pelham, N.Y., hitting a
passenger six times.
NYPD
Commissioner Bill Bratton says alcohol may have been a factor, and one witness
says he believes road rage sparked the shooting.
Pelham
police say the 27-year-old officer, Brendan Cronin, is believed to have fired
his NYPD-issued 9 mm handgun at a passing car near Lincoln Avenue and Sixth
Avenue just off the Hutchinson River Parkway at about 11:55 p.m..
The
47-year-old passenger in that car was shot in the torso, arm and hand, police
said.
Witness
Travis Hood said he was outside his apartment when he saw a driver get cut off
by another car.
The
driver "was screaming at the top of his voice, climbed out the window --
not even opened the door, he just sat on his window and just 'pow pow pow pow
pow,'" said Hood.
"He
emptied his clip, and I heard his clip go off," he said. "Emptying
his clip, that's not self-defense, that's rage."
Hood
said he quickly ran away, frightened by the violence: "I was out of there,
I was gone."
After
local police responded to the shooting, they found the NYPD officer driving
along Lincoln Avenue with his hazard lights on. They followed him to New
Rochelle, for about a mile, when he stuck his gun out the window, according to
Pelham police.
Police
ordered him to toss the gun and his keys out the window, and arrested him.
He
is charged with assault. Lawyer information wasn't immediately available.
Janet
Gessner, who lives about a block away from where the shots were fired, also
said she heard about five shots in rapid succession.
"Boom,
boom, boom, boom, boom," she said. "I didn't hear anything
else."
Hood,
who has not spoken with police about what he saw, said of Cronin: "He
should be an example as a cop. I mean, really, everybody gets road rage, but
you're a cop."
--Andrew
Siff and Michael George contributed to this story
