Officer Brendan Cronin, 28, claims that he blacked out before walking up to Joe Felice’s vehicle at a stop light in Pelham, New York on April 29, 2014, and shooting 13 rounds into the car, hitting Felice six times. Felice and his friend, Robert Borrelli, who was not struck, had just left a hockey game and never saw the officer.
“I remember yelling: ‘You have to save me! I have a 3-year-old!’” Felice tearfully told CBS of his conversation Borelli following the shooting. “And that was probably the worst part of the ordeal — knowing you’re dying is worse than death itself.”
Felice has a bullet lodged in his chest to this day.
Cronin had just left a bar where he got drunk with his supervisor and partner after attending a mandatory car stop training session at the police shooting range the day the incident occurred. According to court documents, the six-year veteran had consumed 10 drinks.
For seventeen months the officer has received his taxpayer-funded salary.
“I feel like we have to fight the system every step of the way to get justice that should be so obvious and so forthcoming,” Felice’s wife, Patricia Scalfani, told CBS of the difficulty the family has faced in receiving justice.
Cronin is scheduled to be sentenced on December 2. A plea deal calls for the officer to serve nine years on two felony counts of attempted murder and two felony counts of first degree assault.
His victim wants to see the officer behind bars, and is hoping Cronin will serve at least half of the 25-year maximum sentence for his crime.
