NYPD Cop Shot

Hero NYPD cop Peter Figoski shot & killed by robber in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn

His partner Glenn Estrada arrests suspect

From the NY DAILY NEWS….

Hero

There was only one way in and only one way out.

But in the end, there was no escape from the squalid Brooklyn apartment — not for the gunmen, nor for the hero cop they killed there.

The events that cost Police Officer Peter Figoski his life played out in five minutes in an unfinished railroad flat illuminated by a single 75-watt light bulb.

It began, cops said, at 2:10 a.m. when two gunmen began pounding on the basement door of 25 Pine St.

The small, gray-sided two-story house sits in one of Brooklyn’s rougher neighborhoods, where the Latin Kings and Trinitarios gangs hold sway and residents cower indoors after dark.

The owner rents rooms illegally to single men, and neighbors called the house an obvious drug den.

“It’s this nice two-family house where about 15 people live and they’re coming in and out at all hours. All kinds of shady characters,” said one resident.

Piece of shit

One of the gunmen, 27-year-old Lamont Pride, was wearing a black ski mask and an aura of invincibility: he had skated past two recent New York arrests despite being wanted for shooting a man in North Carolina.

Pride and his accomplice demanded cash and jewelry from the 25-year-old man inside.

Pride spoke English, his accomplice spoke Spanish. Pride began the negotiations by pistol-whipping the tenant with his 9-mm. Ruger.

The pounding and yelling roused the building’s owner, who called 911 to report a burglary in progress, as well as two neighbors from across the street who went to see what the commotion was.

One of the neighbors saw the two men with guns and fled. The other rushed in to help the tenant, who was lying in a narrow hallway by an oil tank and the one lit bulb, his head leaking a pool of blood.

Pride and his pal took $770 and a cheap watch and tried to flee out the back of the cramped apartment, but they couldn’t find a way out, police said.

All they found was a kitchen and a locked back door.

Stashing a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver with a jammed chamber inside the microwave oven, they rushed back toward the front, passing their bleeding victim and the neighbor tending to him.

They nearly made it to the front door when the crackle of police radios alerted them to the arrival of two NYPD officers. Pride and his accomplice ducked into a room near the front door, a smallish space full of tools and junk, and watched the two uniformed officers head past to the middle of the apartment, where the tenant lay sprawled.

Believing they were in the clear, Pride and his pal burst out of the side room and rushed for the stairs — where they ran into Officer Figoski and his partner,
Officer Glenn Estrada, who were arriving as backup.

Pride’s accomplice, who went up first, began wrestling with Estrada on the street.

Encountering Figoski on the stairs, Pride didn’t hesitate: He shot the highly decorated father of four daughters point-blank in the face with his Ruger.

The bullet hit Figoski under the left eye and exited the back of his head. He collapsed just outside the door to the basement apartment.

Decides to chase the killer

Estrada heard the shot and saw Pride sprint by. In a split second, he made a tough call: Letting his suspect go, he chased after the man who had shot his partner of three years.

Pride led Estrada and other cops who joined the hunt on a fourblock chase.

On the way, he threw his gun under a red Toyota and flung his ski mask to the gutter.

He was cornered blocks away, at Chestnut and Fulton Sts., where he surrendered as cops with their guns drawn converged upon him, yelling at him to get down.

He later told cops that he went to the building to buy marijuana, saw a gunman struggling with a cop and tried to help out. The gun went off during the struggle, he claimed.

Police don’t believe him.

The second suspect ditched his gray hoodie and slinked away wearing a dark T-shirt in the near-freezing night air.

The security camera at a laundermat on Chestnut St. captured him walking by quickly at 2:25 a.m., throwing worried glances over his shoulder.

A citywide manhunt was on for him Monday night, and he had a $10,000 price on his head.

He was not expected to stay free for long.

By the way…Pride was brought in wearing Figoski’s cuffs.

 

My Reaction?…Click below.

“A cop is sitting at dinner with civilian friends when the conversation turns towards the sad news of the police officer that was killed in the line of duty earlier in the day. Did you hear of the officer who was killed today, someone asks. Yeah, replies the cop, clearly angry and saddened at the senseless loss. As most cops have experienced, the common question is then… asked. Did you know him? Yes I knew him, said the suddenly quiet veteran. The question continue, We’re you coworkers? pries the friend. No I never met him, but I knew him, said the cop. Intrigued, but confused the civilian sits up a little straighter and asks for clarification. The cop looks away and says, I never met him but I knew him He was a idealistic young man when he joined the department. He sought a job but found a calling. He took an oath and swore to uphold his end of it to the best of his ability. He wanted to make a difference. To protect and to serve. He wanted to help. He would never say that out loud for fear of sounding like a “movie” cop. As he got into the job, he worried about the dangers but put them out of his mind. He had a front row seat to the greatest show on earth. The best and the worst of the human existence and he loved it but it also made him tired. It drained him. The daily toll of seeing people treating each other poorly can be seen in his demeanor. The countless victims of all ages. The fear that accompanies responding to a man with a gun call. Or the stress of pulling the limp body of a child from a burning building. The horror of collecting body parts in the aftermath of an avoidable vehicular accident involving a car load of teenagers. The freezing nights standing a foot post or walking a beat. The skeptical looks from assistant district attorneys when he recounted how he arrested the multiple time, repeat offender. The frustration of feeling the questioning, sideways looks from community members who painted him with the same broad brush when a fellow police officer is accused of misconduct. The constant reminder of the everyday dangers he and other officers face as he straps on his bullet resistant vest and holsters his firearm. The days and nights spent away from family and friends during holidays and special events because he had to go to work. The cold meals and endless cups of tepid bad coffee. He also felt the exhilaration of delivering a baby in the back seat of his police car. Of arresting the serial rapist who had been preying on the women in “his” precinct. The special bond he shared with his fellow cops, but most especially with partner. His brother from another mother. The tears of mourning a fallen colleague. All this he endured because he took an oath. All because he wanted to make a difference. I don’t know his name, but yes, I knew him. I knew him

Related articles

• NYPD Officer Peter Figoski shot & killed by robber in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn – New York Daily News (nydailynews.com)
• 5 Suspects In NYPD Cop’s Death Being Held Without Bail; Scholarship Fund Established For Slain Cop’s Daughters (newyork.cbslocal.com)
• 5 men arraigned in NYPD officer’s shooting death (newsok.com)
• NYPD officer shot in face, dies on duty (cbsnews.com)

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