Family of road rage shooting victim sues NYPD for not disarming alcoholic cop

The family of a man left a quadriplegic when he was shot in a New Jersey road rage clash is suing the NYPD for allowing the alcoholic cop accused of the crime to keep his service weapon while in a violent “downward spiral.”

Kishan Patel, 30, was driving home on May 17 when he was idling next to “ticking time bomb” NYPD Officer Hieu Tran at a light near Route 73 and Cooper Road in Camden County, according to the suit filed on Monday. Tran was arrested on June 6 for attempted murder, aggravated assault and weapon possession and is awaiting trial in Camden Criminal Court.

New Jersey police say Tran, 27, pulled his service weapon and opened fire on Patel’s pickup truck in a fit of road rage. Surveillance footage shows Patel speeding away in a panic, his truck riddled with bullets, before crashing into another vehicle while the shooter drives off.

Patel, who had recently gotten engaged, was just minutes from home when he was targeted, relatives said at a press conference outside Manhattan Federal Court Wednesday.

“Kishan is full of life. He really enjoyed his life. He worked really hard. He worked every day, seven days a week. He has passion for cars. He loves music,” said the victim’s mother Manjina Patel, who added that her son ran three businesses, including a liquor store.

“Why did he do this?” said Manjina Patel. “He just pulled up next to him and randomly shot at him. Why? I want to know why he did that. I need to know that. It just doesn’t make sense.”

Tran was returning from a wedding and later claimed he didn’t remember what happened with Patel because he had too much to drink.

“After leaving Patel to bleed uncontrollably in the cab of his pickup truck, Officer Tran calmly drove north, stopped for gas, went home to New York, reloaded his weapon and went to work the next day like nothing had happened,” the lawsuit filed by Patel’s family charges. “Officer Tran was also found to have been conducting internet searches to learn about the shooting.”

Defendants in the federal lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, include New York City, Tran, Mayor Adams, several unnamed NYPD officers and former NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban, who resigned last month amid an FBI probe into allegations that his twin brother was selling security favors to nightclubs .

Patel suffered massive brain and spinal cord injuries from both the shooting and the crash, Patel’s lawyer Joseph Marrone wrote in court papers. Since the shooting, he’s been left a quadriplegic and will require “24/7 skilled nursing care for the rest of his life.” Besides Patel, a woman in another car struck by his pickup truck was injured, officials said.

Marrone said Patel’s care will cost $1 million per year. His family says they will be bringing Patel to a facility in Texas Thursday for neurotherapy.

“We don’t care where we have to travel, how far we have to go, that doesn’t matter,” said Patel’s mother. “It’s so hard for us every day, juggling work. we’re never home. We don’t eat properly, you don’t sleep. Your life is just turned upside down.”

Patel’s brother-in-law Dan Gaughan said the Texas facility will try and determine why Patel isn’t fully regaining consciousness.

“Our goal was to get him to wake up, be nonverbal but communicative and aware of his surroundings. They told us they can’t guarantee anything since every case is different but they think that’s a realistic goal for now. After that, we’ll aim for more, like verbal communication, but it’s a step-by-step process.”

During his June 25 detention hearing in Camden County Criminal Court, prosecutors said Tran suffers from PTSD and alcoholism.  A psychologist examined Tran, who determined the young cop was on a “downward spiral,” prosecutor Peter Gallagher said, according to court transcripts attached to the lawsuit.

“The doctor goes on [to] opine that, ‘It seems inevitable that something tragic was impending in his life based upon his physical, psychological and emotional deterioration,'” Gallagher said in court. “So if I read this correctly, the doctor’s essentially opining that this was almost inevitable that this defendant was going to do something awful.”

“(Tran) was a powder keg or a time bomb waiting to go off,” Gallagher added. “Chillingly, Judge, a man — this victim, Kishan Patel — by all appearances this defendant had never even met before the crime — before this occurred. This victim just had the misfortune to be driving down the same road as the defendant while the defendant was driving home armed.”

Tran was arrested more than two weeks after the incident at his job. After being extradited to New Jersey, he was ordered held without bail during his arraignment proceeding in June and has been in custody in Camden County since, according to the suit.

Despite the cop’s problems, neither the NYPD nor the city took any steps to disarm Tran or force him to get help, the suit says. Instead he was just “advised” to get treatment, the lawsuit claims.

“The NYPD did nothing to prevent Officer Tran from taking his NYPD issued weapon and using it to commit acts of violence and mayhem,” the suit says..

Judge Michael Joyce noted during the arraignment proceeding that Tran’s “Commanding officer in New York PD told him to get treatment for (his alcoholism) and (he) didn’t do it,” according to the transcript.

“(They) knew that Tran had significant mental health challenges with longstanding alcoholism, despite his being only twenty-seven years old,” the lawsuit states. “Somehow, he was accepted into the NYPD and armed with a service pistol, but soon became a ‘problem officer’ who needed to be taken ‘off the street.'”

After three years with the department, Tran was moved from a Harlem precinct to the social media team of the NYPD’s press office but was still allowed to be armed. He was suspended without pay after his arrest.

The suit gave 18 examples of other officers over the years who have demonstrated problems with substance abuse and said the department has failed to address its “accepted alcohol culture,” showing “deliberate indifference” that led to Patel’s encounter.

An email to the city’s Corporation Counsel was not immediately returned.

Patel’s mother says she is still in disbelief that a cop is allegedly responsible for her son’s condition.

“First of all, I was shocked when I found out that he was an NYPD officer. I had to ask the police, ‘Are you sure? It can’t be’. ‘Are you sure you got the right person?'” said Manjina Patel.

“I was in shock. I still can’t believe it.”