An undercover NYPD cop paid to “serve and protect” was arrested Tuesday for terrorizing a Manhattan family by smashing out their SUV’s rear window during a horrifying biker gang beatdown off the West Side Highway, authorities said.
Wojciech Braszczok, 32, was publicly identified by his bosses — to whom he allegedly lied when he claimed he had nothing to do with the heinous Sept. 29 attack. Video evidence showed he shattered the window with his gloved hand.
Braszczok surrendered with his lawyer at Central Booking and was charged with rioting and criminal mischief — and he could face up to seven years in prison, sources said.
Authorities wanted to nail Braszczok, a 10-year veteran, on stiffer charges, such as gang assault, but weren’t convinced the charges would stick, sources said.
Braszczok told authorities that he pulled up toward the end of the beating, leaving him no time to help victim Alexian Lien or his terrified wife and 2-year-old daughter in the SUV, sources said.
The cop also said he feared for his life if he blew his cover in any way — but law-enforcement sources scoffed at the claim. He works undercover narcotics, but is on assignment with the NYPD’s Intelligence Division and wasn’t on the clock at the time.
“He totally lied when he said he did nothing because he didn’t want to blow his cover,’’ a law-enforcement source seethed.
Braszczok acted suspiciously from the start, sources said — not even telling his superiors that he was on the ride until three days after the attack.
If he caused $1,500 or more in damage to Lien’s car, Braszczok faces a D felony, which carries up to seven years. The Range Rover’s rear window costs $1,730.
For a gang-assault charge to stick, prosecutors would have to prove that he intended to cause serious physical injury.
But Braszczok didn’t touch Lien, the sources acknowledged.
And while Lien’s toddler was in the back seat when the cop smashed the SUV’s glass, the windows were tinted — so he could argue that he didn’t know she was there, the sources said.
Late Tuesday, a source close to Braszczok defended him, claiming the window was already broken when he hit it.
“What is he going to be charged, with, breaking a broken window?” the source asked.
Braszczok, who had already been placed on modified duty and stripped of his gun and badge, has now been suspended without pay or benefits for at least 30 days, sources said.
In addition to Braszczok, a sixth biker was charged Tuesday in the brutal beatdown.
Clinton Caldwell, 32, of Brooklyn, was charged with gang assault after he was seen on video beating Lien, sources said.
Another cop, already-disgraced Detective Samir Gonsalves, was on the ride but not near the scene at the time, sources said.
Gonsalves, 34, is a nine-year veteran who was stripped of his gun and badge and demoted from narcotics to Brooklyn courts in August, following his arrest for allegedly beating up his Queens prosecutor girlfriend, Jacqueline Rizk, sources said.
The latest arrests came as another biker who allegedly helped in the attack was ordered held in lieu of $100,000 bail.
Craig Wright, 29, of Brooklyn is seen on video not even waiting for the 33-year-old Lien to be dragged from his car before allegedly beating him. Wright punched Lien through his shattered driver’s-side window, then repeatedly stomped on him once he was tossed to the ground, officials said.
Wright was partly ID’d by a “No. 13’’ logo on his jacket, authorities said.
His lawyer proclaimed his client’s innocence.
But prosecutor Samantha Turino said, “This defendant is on video stomping [Lien] at least three times.”
Additional reporting by Kate Sheehy, Kirstan Conley, Rebecca Rosenberg and Georgett Roberts