An NYPD cop was indicted Tuesday on charges he squeezed off a half-dozen shots at a fleeing car during rush hour last year — putting bystanders at risk of “serious physical injury,” Bronx prosecutors said.
Officer Richard Delahanty, 29, was arraigned Tuesday on a charge of second-degree reckless endangerment in connection to the Feb. 16, 2021, shooting, according to the Bronx District Attorney’s Office.
The indictment was unsealed two days after cops fired at a teen in the Bronx on Sunday night when, according to Mayor Eric Adams, the Jeep made a “very clear attempt to drive at a police officer.”
In last year’s shooting, Delahanty and his two partners, all of whom were assigned to the department’s Public Safety Units in the Bronx’s 44th Precinct, stopped a Dodge Charger with dark-tinted windows and a loud exhaust on East 167th Street and Walton Avenue after a brief chase, officials said.
When the cops approached the Charger around 6:30 p.m., the driver — identified as 28-year-old Luis Cabrera — popped a K-turn, driving past Delahanty, who reached for the door but snagged his hand on a partially opened window.
Delahanty then pulled his gun and fired six rounds at the car as it drove away as “civilians on the street [ran] away and those in nearby vehicles duck[ed] for cover,” according to the Bronx District Attorney’s Office.
Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said the officer’s alleged actions put New Yorkers at risk. Lev Radin/Pacific Press“The defendant allegedly fired six times at a vehicle fleeing from a car stop at 6:30 in the evening, while multiple people were walking on the street and there was rush-hour traffic,” DA Darcel Clark said. “This created a substantial risk of serious physical injury to the pedestrians and drivers.”
NYPD officers are trained not to shoot at cars, especially when they are fleeing, unless the occupants are using other weapons, according to officials and sources.
But the department’s use of force board, which rules whether an officer’s actions were justified, allows for a “carve-out” when the vehicle is being driven at an officer.
In the most recent incident, Adams told reporters that body-camera footage showed the Jeep heading for the officer when he opened fire, striking the New Jersey teen driver in the head.
The driver in last year’s incident, Cabrera, was arrested and charged with aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, which he later pleaded guilty to and paid a $200 fine, officials said.
The cop, Delahanty, who is facing a misdemeanor charge, is due back in court on May 18.
He has been suspended without pay, police said.
