Fairfax County Police Watch: Hockey players shot by drunken off-duty NYPD cop plan $90 million lawsuit

Joseph Felice and Robert Borrelli say they will sue Officer Brendan Cronin, the city and the NYPD over an April shooting in which Cronin shot at the two men as they sat in a car. The cop was allegedly drunk and was off-duty. Felice was hit six times and was only saved because Borrelli immediately drove him to the hospital, according to accounts.

BY Edgar Sandoval , Corky Siemaszko

Two weekend hockey players fired a $90 million legal slapshot Tuesday at an NYPD officer accused of shooting at them while he was drunk.

Joseph Felice and his teammate, Robert Borrelli, announced they intend to sue Officer Brendan Cronin, the city and the police department for the April shooting.

“Joe and I very nearly lost our lives when New York City Police Officer Brendan Cronin, armed and drunk, made the decision to try to kill us by discharging his weapon at us as we sat in my car,” an emotional Borrelli said at his lawyer’s office.

“I honestly don't know how we survived this unprovoked ambush or why he chose to single out Joe and myself for his vicious rampage.”

Felice, who works in finance and plays forward for the New Rochelle Wranglers, is still recuperating from being shot six times. So Borrelli read his statement.

“What happened to Rob and me was a random act of violence committed by a ruthless man,” Felice wrote. “This could have happened to anyone. I just happened to be coming home from winning a hockey game.”

Felice still faces numerous surgeries to repair his shoulders and arms, lawyer Randolph McLaughlin said.

“Frankly it's a miracle both men didn't die that day,” the lawyer said.

Then, referring to Cronin, McLaughlin added, “What was in his head?”

So far Cronin has not supplied an answer to that question.

Frankly it's a miracle both men didn't die that day.

Assigned to the 46th Precinct in the Bronx, Cronin was charged by Pelham police with first-degree assault. He is now awaiting the decision of a Westchester County grand jury, which is weighing an assault indictment against him.

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said Cronin has been suspended by the NYPD.

Borelli and Felice don’t know Cronin. They were headed home when the off-duty cop, who had allegedly been drinking earlier with other officers, pulled up to their car at a light in Pelham and — without any warning — began blasting away, police said.

Cronin discharged all 13 rounds from his NYPD-issued gun and Felice, who was sitting in the passenger seat, absorbed six of the bullets, police said.

Borrelli, who plays goalie on the team, quickly drove his bleeding buddy to Montefiore Medical Center and “made the 'save' of a lifetime,” Felice said in his statement.

Cronin was pulled over a short time later by Pelham officers responding to 911 calls about a man driving erratically with his car's hazard lights flashing.

A 27-year-old Yonkers resident, Cronin told arresting officers he had no memory of firing his weapon. He also refused to take a Breathalyzer test.

Morrogh finds cop he doesn’t love. In other news, hell freezes.

Probe of fatal police shooting goes to federal authorities

By Justin Jouvenal/Post

The Fairfax County prosecutor has turned over the investigation of a fatal police shooting of an unarmed Springfield man to federal authorities, citing complications with the five-month-old case.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh said the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia has agreed to continue the probe into the death of 46-year-old John Geer, who was shot during a standoff with Fairfax County police in August. No one has been charged in the incident.

“There is a conflict of interest that has arisen in the case,” Morrogh said Thursday. “And there is a second potential conflict of interest that has arisen out of my office. . . . This is the prudent thing to do.”

Morrogh declined to describe the nature of the conflicts because the investigation is ongoing. The U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday that it could not confirm or deny any investigation or comment on pending investigations.

Police went to Geer’s Pebble Brook Court home on Aug. 29 because of a report of a domestic disturbance. Geer’s father, Don Geer, said his son was upset because his girlfriend, the mother of his two children, had decided to leave him.

John Geer had thrown his girlfriend’s belongings in the front yard. She called police and told them that Geer had a firearm. Police said they tried for about 50 minutes to persuade Geer to leave the home, but he refused.

Don Geer said he watched the climax of the encounter. He said that he could not hear what officers were saying to his son but that he saw him standing with empty hands resting on top of a screen door at the home’s entrance.

At some point, John Geer began to slowly lower his hands and an officer opened fire, hitting Geer in the chest, his father said. Geer retreated inside and closed the door. A SWAT team eventually entered the home and found Geer dead.

Don Geer said detectives later told him that his son did not have a gun on him at the time of the shooting but that there was a holstered handgun a couple of steps from the front door.

Don Geer said it appeared to him that the shooting was unjustified, but he was unsure what to make of the probe being turned over to federal authorities.

“I don’t know whether that’s good or bad — if I had a better idea of why they are doing it, I could form an opinion,” he said.

Geer and friends of his son have been critical of how long the investigation has taken, but Morrogh said police and prosecutors were working to explore all the evidence. He did not think federal prosecutors would have to start from scratch.

“No one wants these things to linger on,” Morrogh said.

Our ink will outlast his career

Under the reign of former Chief of Police Rhorer the Fairfax County Police arrested a man for not wearing clothes in his house while he made coffee, set up an eye doctor on a gambling charge and then used the SWAT team to kill him. An investigation into the charge that the Doctor’s primary clients were cops has never been investigated. The police gunned down an emotionally unstable man because cop who shot him wrongly assumed the man was trying to escape. He wasn’t. The cops also shot dead four other citizens under highly questionable circumstances. The department under Rhorer was sued multiple times by citizens. So did they fire Rhorer? Naw they promoted him. According to news reports Rhorer draws a salary of $191,168 per year as Deputy Fairfax County Executive as well as a concurrent pension from the Fairfax County police of $173000 per year.

Occupation by force

According to the most recent U.S. Census figures, nearly one in five Fairfax residents (17.5 percent) is of Asian descent while Hispanics make up nearly 16 percent of Fairfax’s overall population. Those numbers drop considerably when applied to the Fairfax County Police Department, where only 4.3 percent of officers are Asian and 4.1 percent Hispanic. White officers make up 84 percent of Fairfax County’s 1,360-member police department, significantly higher than the county’s general population (54 percent white). Almost 90% of the force lives outside the county.