Police Beat Alleged Cop Shooter At Precinct Station House, Lawyer Says

The court-appointed attorney for alleged cop shooter Luis "Baby" Ortiz said his client was beaten while he was in police custody. At Ortiz's arraignment yesterday, lawyer Eric Poulos surprised no one by accusing cops of roughing up his client after he was arrested, bruising his face and chipping a tooth. “He was struck by police officers’ fists, both at the scene and at the station house hours after,” Poulos told the judge yesterday. Considering all the other horrible things that can happen to a perp while in police custody, it sounds like the alleged cop shooter got off easy.
The judge granted a request for medical attention for Ortiz, who pleaded not guilty. His attorney said, "I think there is an effort here by the prosecution to sandbag this case. The videotape shows wrestling—it doesn't show who did the shooting. The gun was found outside in the projects." Ortiz was picked out of three different lineups by witnesses, but his lawyer says called the lineups "a set up" since police didn't allow Mr. Ortiz to change his clothing, the Wall Street Journal reports.
But prosecutor Lewis Lieberman called the shooting "an assassination attempt by this defendant against Police Officer [Kevin] Brennan," who miraculously survived a bullet to the head. Prosecutors say surveillance video shows Ortiz and Brennan scuffling in a hallway of the Bushwick Houses Tuesday night, and in the video the suspect loses a white sneaker. Ortiz was later arrested wearing one white sneaker that matched the one recovered at the scene, and investigators say ballistic tests show the bullet recovered from Brennan's head matches a gun found outside the apartment where Ortiz was collared.
Ortiz faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted, and sources tell the Post that the .38-caliber revolver used to shoot Brennan was the same gun used in the New Year’s Day murder of drug dealer Shannon Mckenzie. (Ortiz was wanted for questioning in that murder.) Investigators also say Officer Brennan cheated death twice, because Ortiz tried to squeeze off a second round, but the gun misfired. "If the second bullet went off, he’d probably be dead," one source tells the Post. And an Ortiz neighbor tells the tabloid, "He’s a trigger-happy motherf--ker."