Bed-Stuy Man Dodges Bullet From Drunken Off-Duty Cop: Report

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — A local bodega owner and father of two tried to help a drunk off-duty cop after he crashed his vehicle into a row of parked cars, but soon found himself dodging a bullet fired from the officer's gun, reports the Daily News.

At about 2 a.m. on Saturday, the 23-year-old bodega owner was closing up his shop when he heard a car crash down the street near Vernon and Throop Avenues in Bed-Stuy, the Daily News reports.

He found Bronx NYPD officer Efrain Alejandro, who joined the force in 2021, behind the wheel of the crashed car.

"I went to the car to ask him if he want help and he says yes and then I call 911," the bodega owner told a Daily News reporter. "I went back to the car and he pulled the gun. He told me to get away from the car. I ran away. Then I heard a gunshot."

Alejandro, who was recorded by his fellow officers later that evening as having a .08 blood-alcohol count, was taking aim at a passing Uber driver, according to the criminal complaint reviewed by the Daily News.

The bodega owner ran for his life, he told the Daily News.

"I was praying thanks to God I was alive," the bodega owner and father of two children said to the Daily News. "I was thinking of my family, my mom, the kids."

Alejandro was charged with drunk driving, menacing and attempted assault, according to the NYPD.

The Daily News reports he has been suspended without pay and was released without bail.

Read more at The New York Daily News.