A man died and a woman is in critical condition with life-threatening injuries after a drunk off-duty NYPD cop drove his SUV onto a Brooklyn sidewalk early Saturday, police sources said.
Rookie officer Nicholas Batka slammed his gray Dodge Durango onto the sidewalk of a tree-lined residential section of Bedford Avenue near North 8th Street that residents say is usually crowded with people enjoying the neighborhood’s nightlife.
The crash noise aroused several sleeping neighbors, who found a scene of blood-soaked horror at their doorsteps.
“I was woken up with a huge noise. People were screaming in agony — ‘Help!’ ‘God!’ I knew something terrible had happened,” said 48-year-old Agata Winter, a witness.
“I heard people screaming and saw people lying all over the place. Just covered in blood and really badly injured,” said Kate Hanley, 35. “Someone in front of my stoop had a bone sticking out of his leg.”
“People were screaming. It was really bad.”
Angela Zielinski aided a woman at the scene. “Her head, her leg was bleeding. She was squirming and squealing,” Zielinski said. A male victim was impaled on a fence, she added.
Zielinski tried to speak to the driver.
“I said ‘Dude what the f–k, you just hit four people,’” she said. “He stared at me with a blank stare.”
Witness Kelly Convery said Batka tried to drive away from the scene. When he couldn’t move his car, “he switched sides, from the driver’s seat to the passenger side. Everyone saw him do it,” said Convery, 38.
Good Samaritans tried to keep Batka from fleeing the scene by keeping him in the car until police arrived. “People were trying to stop him,” said Brandon Smith, 31, who lives across the street.
Other witnesses said Batka didn’t seem able to run far. “He was really wasted,” said Hanley. “When they brought him out, he was conscious, but like someone that was blackout drunk. Four people had to get him out of the car.”
Zielinski said she saw Batka display his police badge to the people gathered around his car.
The off-duty officer was reported in stable condition at Weill Cornell, police sources said.
A Facebook profile believed to belong to Batka shows he is not shy about his drinking. More than a half-dozen photos show him with beer and booze.
A photo from 2013 shows him leaning over eight shots of booze, with the quip: “and all for me ;p”
A picture with the profile says: “Just because it’s a bad idea doesn’t mean it’s not going to be a good time.”
Batka, who has been suspended by the NYPD, was to report to work with the Transit Boro Manhattan Task Force at 7 a.m. Saturday, police officials said. He is expected to face DWI and other charges.
Additional reporting by Abigail Gepner and Jennifer Bain