NYPD Trainers Who Drank with Drunk Cop Have Been Added to Shooting Lawsuit

HEZI ARIS 4:30PM • SEPTEMBER 28, 2016

Note: Felice Second Amended Complaint Attached Herein

NEW YORK, NY — September 28, 2016 — Two NYPD detectives who conducted police training in high intensity traffic stops, and then drank for several hours at a local bar with their police trainees, have been added to federal lawsuits brought by Joseph Felice and Robert Borrelli, two unsuspecting businessmen driving home from playing hockey on April 29, 2014, who were shot at fourteen times by drunk NYPD Police Officer Brendan Cronin. Felice, who was sitting in the passenger seat of Borrelli’s car was struck six times and gravely wounded after the car stopped at a red light in Pelham, NY, when Cronin emerged from the shadows, retrieved his NYPD service weapon from the back seat of his parked car and opened fire on the two men.

In newly obtained documents in the lawsuits, Yonkers resident Cronin, who is serving a nine year sentence after pleading guilty to attempted murder, assault and driving while intoxicated, said he went to a City Island bar with his supervisor, Sergeant Edwin Ching and fellow Police Officer Ryan Bracconeri specifically to meet trainers John Walker and Liam Swords in the hope of talking about future training opportunities. Cronin admitted to consuming several beers and shots of whiskey with them before getting into his car, with his service weapon, to drive home.

According to Attorney Debra S. Cohen, of the law firm Newman Ferrara LLP, “The fact that NYPD personnel responsible for training police officers are encouraging and condoning them to get behind the wheel of their car, in possession of their service weapons, while drunk is a chilling indication of how profound the problem of unchecked alcohol abuse within the NYPD actually is.” Cohen also notes that “So far in this case we have seen no evidence that the NYPD has seriously investigated how widespread the problem of alcohol abuse is among its members, both generally and, in particular, at the