Former NYPD Cop Pleads Guilty To Drunkenly Firing 14 Shots At Car

Huffington Post – by Andy Campbell

A former New York Police Department officer pleaded guilty Tuesday to drunkenly firing 14 shots at a car, striking a victim six times.

Brendan Cronin, 28, faces up to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted murder, assault and drunken driving in the April 29, 2014, shooting in Westchester County, New York.  

Prosecutors said Cronin randomly opened fire at the vehicle, occupied by Joseph Felice and Robert Borrelli. The pair was on the way home from a hockey game that night and were stopped at a red light in Pelham when Cronin started firing at them.

Felice was hit six times in the back, shoulder, arm and chest, and narrowly escaped death. The bullets missed Borrelli, who drove his friend to the hospital.

Cronin had spent the day at an NYPD firing range, and then drank 10 servings of beer and a whiskey before the shooting.

“I came from a bar near the range,” he told investigators, according to a police report obtained by the New York Daily News. He was arrested and immediately suspended by the NYPD.

He would have faced 25 years in prison but took a plea deal Tuesday, knowing that he’ll likely spend nine years behind bars when he’s sentenced later this year.

Felice and Borrelli have filed lawsuits against Cronin, New York City, the NYPD and the officers Cronin was drinking with.

Randolph McLaughlin, an attorney representing Felice and Borrelli, said they are relieved by Cronin’s guilty plea and “look forward to the truth coming out in the course of the civil case.”

Cronin was one of three NYPD officers who got drunk and fired their weapons at people in the same week last year.

The Huffington Post’s Christopher Mathias reported:

Three hours after the shooting in Pelham, another off-duty NYPD officer allegedly opened fire at her boyfriend and another woman outside a Somerset, New Jersey strip club. No one was injured. Sgt. Wanda Anthony allegedly fled the scene and was arrested three hours later for drunk driving.

A third off-duty NYPD cop, Det. Jay Poggi, accidentally shot his partner in the wrist after a night of drinking in the Rockaways. The two officers had each reportedly downed 11 drinks.

The three booze-fueled shootings prompted NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton to announce in a statement that he is “personally … very disturbed about a number of incidents in recent weeks that are part of a long-term problem of inappropriate use of alcohol by members of the department.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nypd-cop-guilty-firing-shots-car_56019594e4b0fde8b0cffb16

4 thoughts on “Former NYPD Cop Pleads Guilty To Drunkenly Firing 14 Shots At Car

  1. Throw the key away, and let him rot in there. Public officials and police should get sentenced to twice the time that would be given to civilians, because they violated the public’s trust.

    “Cronin was one of three NYPD officers who got drunk and fired their weapons at people in the same week last year.”

    “New York’s Finest” is their slogan, when the reality is that the police department consists entirely of criminals, and idiots who are too goddamn stupid to make a living any other way in a city that’s buried in money.

    Just look at the idiot’s photo. He has “moron” written right into his bone structure.

    1. LOL, perfectly stated, JR.

      Police departments sure know how to pick ’em, don’t they? But I guess it’s a blessing in disguise that cops are unintelligent. Although their stupidity makes them much less likely to question the law, incapable of moral reasoning, and more obedient to their masters, it also makes them less effective at violating our rights. (Incidentally, it looks like the NYPD morons might actually shoot more accurately when they’re drunk.)

      This may be one of those rare cases where the System feels the need to sacrifice one of its pawns for the sake of public perception. But it still angers me that this dysgenic abomination is going to get a lighter sentence than any of us would have gotten for doing the same thing. Your statement about public servants getting double the sentence for any crime they commit is dead on.

  2. “Throw the key away, and let him rot in there.”

    Yes sir. The only mercy shown would be pumping light to him 1 hour/day….

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