A convicted murderer’s only regret about shooting his Brooklyn parole officer was that he didn’t kill the man, whom he hated for bullying him with endless office visits and inflexible rules that made the shooter late for his job every day.
“I’m just sorry he’s not dead,” fumed Robert “Poison” Morales, 50, as he was led to his arraignment on charges he seriously wounded Samuel Salters, 49, in a Downtown Brooklyn parole office Thursday.
“He deserved it . . . He’s an a- -hole.”
Morales had just begun a meeting with Salters when he allegedly pulled out a 9mm handgun and shot the 18-year parole-office veteran in the shoulder before his gun jammed and he was grabbed by other officers.
Salters, who underwent nearly four hours of surgery at Bellevue Hospital for injuries including damaged organs, has suffered two heart attacks since the shooting, a prosecutor said.
Morales “decided he’d had enough of his relationship with Samuel Salters,” Assistant District Attorney Louis Lieberman said.
“He didn’t like the way Samuel Salters disrespected him. He felt Salters treated him like a child.
“He stated that he aimed for Salters’ face.”
Morales’ childhood friend Chuck DeJesus, 51, said Morales nearly came to blows with Salters two years ago — before Salters started handling his case — after the officer refused Morales’ request to escort him out of a parole office as required by the site’s rules.
Despite their history, DeJesus said, Salters was assigned to oversee Morales’ parole in recent months and immediately began “disrupting his life.”
Salters insisted Morales check in with him twice a month — double the previous officer’s requirement — and forbade him from leaving his Brooklyn home earlier than 7 a.m., which made Morales late to his Bronx job.
He also made him wait up to five hours in his office before meeting with him, DeJesus said.
Morales “felt that when they switched him to this guy, that he was never going to get off parole,” DeJesus said.
The friend said Morales asked for a new officer, but was denied. A parole spokesman said there was no record of that request or any complaints against Salters.
A 61-year-old ex-con who knew Salters from the parole office said the officer was known for being unnecessarily tough.
“He had it coming,” the man said.
DeJesus said Morales had given away most of his belongings in recent weeks.
“He probably knew he was going to do this,” DeJesus said. “I guess he wanted to die or go back to jail.”
Additional reporting by Murray Weiss and Paul Martinka