New York City police officer Brendan Cronin isn’t just given to drinking, driving and shooting (not necessarily in that order), but he’s also one of the luckiest sons o’ guns we know. As reported by nydailynews.com, the heavily inebriated Cronin squeezed off 13 shots at a passenger in a nearby car the other evening. Despite being blitzed, Cronin managed to hit his target six times, far above the average for a member of the NYPD who discharges his gun. Perhaps more Big Apple flatfoots (flatfeet?) should knock back a shot or two before heading out on patrol. For the sake of innocent bystanders, of course. Unfortunately, Cronin was driving at the time . . .
No one’s quite sure what precipitated Cronin launching lead at Joe “The Truck” Felice who was on his way home from a hockey game. Unfortunately, Cronin was apparently too far gone to actually remember the incident after the fact. They say God watches over small children and drunks. The big guy upstairs must have been on duty that night when some of Cronin’s fellow officers tracked him down after he’d driven away from the scene of the shooting.
Shortly after the shooting, Cronin was pulled over by Pelham police after motorists called 911 calls about a man drunk driving while flashing his hazard lights.
As the officer pulls Cronin over, the 27-year-old cop takes out his 9-mm Glock, which was empty, and holds it out the window.
Cops retrieved the weapon without incident.
What are the odds of a typical motorist — one who’d been driving erratically — who sticks a gun out the window of his car walking away from a traffic stop in New York with the same number of orifices he started with? We’re not sure we can count that high, but Cronin might want to play the lottery. It appears he’ll need the cash to pay his attorney.
Felice is reportedly in stable condition. Cronin’s facing assault and DWI charges and joins Detective Jay Poggi as our second drunk NYPD IGOTD awardee in a week.