Lawyer: Off-Duty Cop Shot Victim After Bar Brawl Ended

NYPD To Review Gun Use and Training

The off-duty NYPD cop who shot a man following a Long Island bar brawl fired the round after the altercation was over, according to the lawyer representing victim Atiba Watkins. The fight that lead to the shooting started when the 22-year-old NYPD officer, whose name has not yet been made public, got into a shoving match with the 23-year-old victim's cousin on or near the dance floor of the Irish bar Napper Tandy's in Miller Place on Thursday.

The pair then exchanged blows in the venue's lobby before the officer knocked down Watkins' cousin and exited the bar. According to the victim's attorney, Watkins and his two companions remained inside the venue for at least 20 minutes at the urging of bouncers. When they exited the bar, the officer and several others attacked them in a melee involving at least 10 people, the lawyer said. When that brawl concluded, Watkins was picking up a coat from the ground when he "takes two steps and he hears a shot," the attorney told Newsday. "After the fight is over is when he's shot."

Cops recovered a 4-inch folding knife, which police initially claimed belonged to Watkins, though the attorney said he "didn't know who owned it." Deputy NYPD Commissioner Paul Browne said that inspectors from patrol and internal affairs arrived at the scene and spoke with the officer — who has served on the force for a year and a half — and determined that he was not drunk. "Through their observation he was deemed to be fit for duty," Browne said. The officer was not given a breathalyzer, though he has since been placed "on active but modified duty." Watkins is in intensive care after surgery to remove a kidney damaged by the bullet, which struck him in his lower back, according to Newsday.

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By Ben Muessig in News on November 22, 2009 3:09 PM

Comments [rss]

Mr Mel

Cops in bars getting into fights? Macho nonsense.

JacqueMehoff

what does the mayor say about this?

this isn't the first time when guns and bars intermingled on his watch.

on a side note this 22 year old cop is going places, one way to advance is to drink, don't drink? don't expect the primo assignments.

Dejola

You live by the gun, you die by the gun. Guns, bars, alcohol, youth, all add up to trouble.

ed_Extinct

The cops are prob clean. Remember the "victim" had 28 prior arrests, three for armed possession of an illegal firearm.

hunter.blatherer

The real cause of all of this is obvious if you look at the bar's website.

It was Chicken Wing Night.

Spirit of 76

This story sure is different from the original. The previous claim was that the bouncers couldn't restrain the men and they ripped through a tarp to charge the lone officer, whom they pounded. Now this lawyer says they stayed inside for 20 minutes and were jumped by the cop and a small group when they left. I'd like to know what the bouncers' statements say. But the one thing that doesn't seem debatable is that the man was shot in the back. I don't know how that can happen if he was supposedly swinging a knife at the cop.

Dejola

Hard to understand why so many in our society need to imbibe mind-altering susbstances, e.g. alcohol and drugs. Isn't it enough that they wake up and don't see a tag tied to their big toe? That they live in America, that the sun shines, flowers and music abound? How can it be that life is so miserable that so many have to resort to getting stoned?

Those who hang out in bars drinking day and night ought to consider socializing at home with their families, working out problems instead of causing more.

How can anyone spend hours in a bar without leaving legally drunk. Drunk enough to represent a danger to themselves and the rest of us.

Let us begin to confront our problems and insecurities rather than making them worse, much worse, by spending the family's food and rent money on booze.

The time to begin is now, today. Go home!

HBHB

How is this cop still on duty, getting paid, by our tax dollars? I hope he wasn't drunk, then there's no fake defense. Clean sober and of clear mind when he thought he was above the law because someone gave him a shiny little shield.

S.D.

Right, 'cause you obviously know all everything about this incident, right Sherlock?

I mean, *OBVIOUSLY*, the cop is guilty and the "victim" is a saint...