Before allegedly shooting a motorist in the head, New York City police officer Hieu Tran had been dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol abuse for years, a lawsuit charges. Despite being advised by his commanding officer to seek treatment, Tran did not do so, and the NYPD did not take further action. In May, an off-duty Tran is alleged to have used his service weapon to shoot Kishan Patel, a New Jersey shopkeeper, when he pulled up next to Patel’s vehicle at an intersection. Tran, 27, was charged with attempted murder for the incident, which left Patel paralyzed from the neck down with a traumatic brain injury. Last week, Patel’s family brought its own court case, accusing the NYPD of enabling an avoidable tragedy by failing to address Tran’s issues or discipline the troubled officer, the Washington Post reports. The federal lawsuit names Tran, the city of New York, Mayor Eric Adams and former NYPD commissioner Edward Caban and seeks damages to cover the costs of Patel’s medical expenses.
Patel, 30, was returning home from work on the evening of May 17 and stopped at a red light in Voorhees Township, N.J., when Tran pulled up next to him. Surveillance footage shows Patel’s pickup truck speeding uncontrollably through the intersection, striking another vehicle, and Tran’s vehicle speeding through the intersection shortly afterward. Police responding to the collision found Patel unresponsive in his truck with a gunshot wound behind his right ear. He was diagnosed with an anoxic brain injury and spinal cord injury, and an occupant of the vehicle Patel crashed into also suffered a life-threatening injury. Tran did not report the incident and returned to work in New York. Using surveillance footage and cellphone data, investigators determined that Tran was the sole occupant of his vehicle at the time of the shooting and linked three 9mm shell casings from the scene to his service weapon.
Comments