Officer Peter Figoski (AP)
A Brooklyn jury this morning found cop killer Lamont Pride guilty of second-degree murder for the slaying of Police Officer Peter Figoski during a botched East New York robbery 14 months ago.
The panel of 10 women and two men also convicted Pride of first-degree burglary and second-degree aggravated manslaughter.
He was found not guilty of the most serious charge, alleging he intentionally killed the officer.
He could face at least 25 years to life in prison.
The slain officer’s ex-wife, Paulette, the mother of his four daughters, closed her eyes and exhaled loudly as the verdicts were read, struggling to stay composed.
Daughters Christine, 21, Caitlyn, 19, Caroline, 17 and Corinne, 15 showed no reaction.
Figoski’s mom Mary Ann kept her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide, dabbing her nose with a tissue as the hero cop’s dad Frank kept his hand reassuringly on his wife’s knee.
Figoski’s loved ones were crushed by the jury’s failure to nail Pride on the top count, according to union leader Pat Lynch.
“They’re disappointed. This clown intended on killing police officers. They’re disappointed beyond belief,” said Lynch, president of the New York City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association.
“This clown intended on killing Peter Figoski period. There’s is no doubt. The evidence points to that. Beyond a reasonable doubt does not mean put common sense out the window.”
Pride and four others were accused of plotting to rob a drug dealer who lived in a shabby basement apartment in Brooklyn on Dec. 12, 2011. Suspect Nelson Morales picked out the spot — his uncle’s building, and he said he was in on it, according to suspect Ariel Tejada, who testified against Pride in court.
But the uncle didn’t know, and he called police when he heard a commotion in the basement. As officers arrived, Morales and Tejada pretended to be victims while Pride and another man, Kevin Santos, hid in a boiler room near the only exit, according to trial testimony.
Pride had a loaded 9mm semiautomatic pistol racked and ready to go, and fired once at Figoski, prosecutors said. The father of four was hit in the face and later died at a hospital.
Pride raced down the street and dumped the gun under a parked car before he was arrested by police. In videotaped statements to authorities, he is seen trying to explain that the gun just went off, that he didn’t intentionally shoot anyone.
“I never took the hand off the trigger,” he said in his videotaped statement. “That was my mistake.”
He said another person had the gun and he grabbed it from him because he was worried he was going to get shot. As he was trying to escape with the gun, he tripped on the stairs going out, as Figoski was coming in.
When he hit the ground, the gun went off. “BOOM!” he said, as he lay on the floor of the precinct in the video to show officers and Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Taub how he fell.
Tejada agreed to testify against the others for a reduced sentence of 15 years. Pride’s attorneys tried to discredit Tejada as a liar and criminal eager to save his own skin and pin the crime on others.
They have described the shooting as a tragic accident. They said their client didn’t intend to kill Figoski.
“Responsibility is not intent,” defense attorney James Koenig told the jury during his closing argument. “Like an idiot who should not have a gun in his hand, he had his finger on the trigger.”
But the pistol jammed after the first shot because the casing, usually ejected to make room for the next bullet, got stuck inside. Police said had the gun not jammed, the damage could have been much worse.
The case against Michael Velez, accused of driving the getaway car, is still being heard.
Santos and Morales will be tried later.
Figoski was posthumously awarded the department’s Medal of Honor as well as elevated to detective.
Figoski’s killing was the first fatal shooting of a police officer since 2007, when Russel Timoshenko was shot during a routine traffic stop. Other officers have died on the job since then but were not shot and killed.
With AP