A Bronx father defending his stepdaughter’s honor was shot to death by a plainclothes cop after he ignored repeated orders to freeze and came at the officer with a raised baseball bat, the NYPD said yesterday.
The wife and stepdaughter of victim Alex Figueroa, 40, witnessed the bloodshed Tuesday night and disputed the police account, saying the cop didn’t give the dad time to react before shooting him once in the right side of the chest.
They also said he was carrying an 18-inch stick – not a bat – and it was at his side.
“Cops said, ‘Don’t move’ – then bang,” said his wife, Susan Rodriguez, 35.
His 18-year-old stepdaughter, Alexandra Rodriguez, added: “They didn’t give him a chance.
“They told him to put that thing down but he already had it down at his side. They killed him for nothing.”
The shooting occurred just before midnight in a hallway on the fourth floor of 2710 Bainbridge Ave. in Kingsbridge.
The officer who opened fire, a 30-year-old, six-year veteran, was placed on modified duty pending an investigation, as is routine in police-involved shootings.
NYPD chief spokesman Paul Browne did not say whether the shooting came within police guidelines.
He said Figueroa went with his wife, stepdaughter and a 20-year-old friend up to a fourth-floor apartment to confront two men who had made a comment about his stepdaughter’s legs.
Figueroa, who lives a floor below, was carrying a baseball bat and his pal a wooden closet pole, police said.
Angry words developed into a hallway melee involving 10 people, and a fourth-floor tenant called 911 repeatedly, saying there was a man with a gun.
Browne said he didn’t know whether the report of a gun was a factor in what happened next, but “it’s certainly not helpful to provide the police with bad information.”
Four cops and a sergeant from the 52nd Precinct’s anti-crime unit arrived at 11:46 p.m. and raced up the stairs. They had their police shields out, Browne said.
The cop who fired the round got to the top of the stairs first and shouted “freeze” or “drop the bat,” opening fire after Figueroa raised the bat and came at him, the spokesman said.
Two civilian witnesses reported seeing Figueroa raise the bat, according to Browne.
Figueroa’s wife and stepdaughter, who are threatening to sue the NYPD, swore he didn’t.
A police official said the sergeant, who was carrying a Taser, did not have time to deploy the weapon.
“The confrontation was immediate,” he said. “It was a chaotic situation.”