An NYPD cop pleaded not guilty Thursday in a drunken, off-duty shooting that seriously wounded a Westchester motorist.
Brendan Cronin, 27, of Yonkers softly said​,​ “I understand” after his lawyer spoke for him at his arraignment in White Plains on charges including attempted murder.
He ignored questions from reporters as he left court stone-faced on $250,000 bond.
Cronin is accused of blasting 14 shots from his official police pistol at a car stopped ​next to the car he was in at a red light in Pelham shortly before midnight April 28.
Passenger Joe Felice, returning home from a recreational hockey game, was hit six times in the torso, arm and hand.
Teammate Robert Borrelli, who was driving and rushed Felice to the hospital, said ​Thursday ​he’s still struggling to understand what happened.
“I have the question that everybody has, which is ‘Why?’ That’s the question that will continue to roll in my head,” said Borrelli.
“Every time I looked at him, that’s what kept spinning. Why? Why?”
According to ​police, Cronin confessed to downing 10 drinks — a combination of beer and liquor — ​​ at a City Island bar in the hours before he opened fire.
Civil-rights lawyer Randolph McLaughlin, who represents both Felice and Borrelli, said he was independently investigating allegations that Cronin had also been drinking on duty earlier with his supervisor, Sgt. Edwin Ching.
“If these allegations are true — and we’re now in the process of investigating a series of allegations regarding on-duty drinking by New York City police officers, including Mr. Cronin — then that’s a very serious matter,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin said the NYPD has “a long history of alcohol abuse” and blamed Felice’s shooting on “the failure to do anything about it.”
“NYPD Commissioner (Bill) Bratton’s going to have to answer for this because I think alcohol had a lot to do with it,” added McLaughlin, who’s filed legal papers in advance of suing the city, Cronin, Bratton and Ching.
The NYPD didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Additional reporting by Kirstan Conley