EVIDENCE: Crime-scene investigators found these items at the scene of yesterday’s early-morning car break-in and shooting.
RED ALERT! The alleged thieves didn’t know what a poor choice they had made in targeting the red Lexus of an armed federal agent whose bedroom window overlooked the scene. (
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They picked the wrong car to mess with.
An off-duty FBI agent opened fire from his bedroom window on three punks breaking into his ride in Queens just before dawn yesterday — striking one of the perps in the back, sources told The Post.
The agent’s wife was nursing the couple’s 5-week-old child at about 5 a.m. when she heard a car alarm go off, sources said.
She looked out the window and saw three men trying to steal a radio after removing the front passenger window from the couple’s red Lexus in South Ozone Park.
“She started banging on the window but they didn’t stop,” a source said.
The commotion woke her husband, who grabbed his service pistol in the predawn light and fired a single shot from a second-story bay window, hitting one of the suspects in the lower back from about 25 feet away.
“He knew he hit one of them because the guy fell to the ground. The other two guys dragged him into their car and drove off” in a black Nissan sedan driven by a fourth suspect, a source said.
The agent’s wife called 911. A law-enforcement source said it sounds as if she’s yelling, “Shoot!” on the tape of the call.
Cops canvassed the area and local medical facilities and found the wounded suspect and two of his pals at Brookdale Hospital, where he was in the ICU being treated for a lower back wound.
Sources identified him as Adrian Ricketts, 23, of Canarsie, Brooklyn, who has a record that includes robbery.
The other suspects were identified as Lyster Hensford, 23, of Flatbush, who has priors for burglary and possession of stolen property, and Shamarie Jackson, 28, of Crown Heights, whose rap sheet includes more than 20 busts for petty thefts and other crimes.
Cops are seeking the getaway driver, who they suspect is Ricketts’ brother, the sources said.
The suspects were being grilled at the 106th Precinct station house. It was unclear if they had been charged.
The NYPD impounded the Lexus and turned the investigation over to Queens DA’s Office, which will decide whether to bring the case to a grand jury.
The FBI is investigating the agent’s actions to determine if he complied with the bureau’s policies on the use of deadly force.
The bureau’s New York field office, as per regulation, was automatically taken off the investigation to remove any concerns of bias.
One neighbor was stunned by the agent’s actions.
“Isn’t he supposed to be someone who can assess the situation instead of just reacting? Isn’t that what the FBI trains you to do?” griped Edward Bethea, 40.
Additional reporting by Jamie Schram, Jessica Simeone and Reuven Fenton
After being awakened by his wife at 5 a.m. in their South Ozone Park home, an FBI agent grabs his pistol and fires from this window at three men allegedly breaking into his red Lexus.
The suspects allegedly remove the passenger-side window to enter the car in a bid to steal
its radio. One of them ends up taking a bullet in the back.