Far too little. Far too late.
The thug accused of gunning down Officer Peter Figoski last month during a botched Brooklyn robbery told detectives after his arrest he was “sorry” and never set out to “kill a cop.”
“I’m sorry for what I did,” Lamont Pride blurted out as the detectives drove him to Central Booking, according to court papers made public at a brief hearing in Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen,” Pride whined.
HELP FIGOSKI’S KIDS’ COLLEGE FUND
“I didn’t want to kill a cop. It was wrong and I’m sorry. I can’t take it back.”
Pride, 27, a career criminal, has been charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon for allegedly shooting Figoski in the face last month during a home invasion in Cypress Hills that the hero officer had been trying to break up.
The papers reveal that Pride made several statements to police about the violence that felled the 22-year NYPD veteran, who left behind four daughters.
Initially Pride told cops that he was at 25 Pine St. “to buy weed” and that two men kicked in the door to rob the spot.
He said that as police arrived, he wrestled the gun — “it was silver, it was big and heavy” — from one of the robbers, who then knocked him down as they tried to escape.
“As I attempted to get up, the gun went off,” Pride said in his statement.
But later, Pride admitted he and co-defendant Nelson Morales planned the robbery of a drug dealer who lived in the basement of Morales’ uncle’s house.
He said he searched the home for drugs and money. He checked the refrigerator and found it empty and then checked the boiler room when he heard the cops arrive and yell, “Freeze!”
Pride said he was running out of the basement when he was startled by Figoski, according to investigators’ handwritten notes turned over to the defense yesterday.
“I tried to run,” he said. “I was scared. I clutched both hands. This fired the gun.”
He told detectives he threw the murder weapon under a car and ran, but surrendered when he heard a cop yell, “Stop or I’ll shoot!”
Co-defendant Kevin Santos fingered Pride for the shooting.
After being told he could be charged with murder even though he didn’t pull the trigger, Santos motioned with his chin and told Detective Thomas McKiernan, “He’s the one who pulled the trigger, the black guy in the white suit,” according to court papers.
“I looked forward and observed Lamont Pride being escorted into Central Booking wearing the white suit,” McKiernan wrote.
Santos, who has a tattoo on his neck, started squealing after cops showed him a video that clearly identified him by his tat.
Santos had stuffed a second gun — a black revolver — in a microwave, according to court papers.
Pride, Morales and Santos — along with defendants Ariel Tejada and getaway driver Michael Velez — have pleaded not guilty to murder charges.
The courtroom was packed with uniformed officers.