The ex-con accused of shooting and killing a decorated cop has been indicted by a Brooklyn grand jury, authorities said.
Lamont Pride, 27, allegedly shot Officer Peter Figoski during a robbery attempt in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn.
Pride’s four alleged accomplices: accused ringleader Nelson Morales, 27; Ariel Tejada, 22; accused getaway driver Michael Velez, 21, and 30-year-old ex-con Kevin Santos, an affiliate of the Latin Kings street gang, were also indicted in the slaying.
All five men appeared before a judge this afternoon in Brooklyn Criminal Court as 70 cops packed into the courtroom.
At their arraignment earlier this week, all the suspects were charged with murder and a raft of other charges. All five have been held without bail.
Cops said Pride and his four accomplices met early Monday at an apartment in Queens to plot the robbery of a man who lived in the basement apartment of 25 Pine St. in Cypress Hills. The man was a known pot dealer.
The crew, armed with the Ruger and a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver, drove to the building and entered the basement by kicking in the gate and door, police said.
A ski-masked Pride and Santos — who had been released on parole for a robbery rap just two months ago — pistol-whipped the 25-year-old pot dealer, police said.
The crew then grabbed more than $700 cash and a cheap wristwatch before starting to flee.
The landlord called 911 and two cops arrived at around 2:15 a.m., followed closely by Figoski and his partner Glenn Estrada, 42.
As Pride and Santos hid in a storage room in the basement, the first two officers found the bloodied tenant along with Tejada and Morales — who posed as neighbors who had raced over to help.
But cops got suspicious because the two men began describing — a little too well — the weapons used in the heist.
As the cops were talking to the trio, Pride and Santos slipped out of their hiding space and ran into Estrada and Figoski, police said.
While Estrada struggled with Santos, Pride shot Figoski in the face with the 9mm and ran off, police said.
Estrada then broke off his fight with Santos and chased Pride.
As the mayhem with Pride and Santos went down, the fifth alleged accomplice, Velez, was sitting outside the apartment building in a gold Nissan Maxima that the robbers planned to use as a getaway car, police said.
After patrol cars arrived at the shooting scene and boxed in his Nissan, Velez, without anyone noticing, ducked out of the car and walked off to a local bar, sources said.
There, he called a livery cab, which drove him to a Queens residence.
But cops were able to find Velez — who was busted at his cousin’s home — after finding a surveillance video that showed him getting into the livery cab, which had a triangular sticker on it, sources said.
Figoski’s funeral will be held Monday morning at St. Joseph’s Parish Church in Babylon, LI, where he and his four daughters were baptized, colleagues said.