Newly launched surveillance video exhibits the second an off-duty New York Metropolis correction officer was viciously shot lifeless in Queens greater than 4 years in the past throughout a parking spat — and prosecutors are hoping it results in the killer.
The grainy, black and white footage exhibits sufferer John Jeff, 28, being killed in a hail of bullets and the alleged assailants fleeing the scene within the early hours of Aug. 15, 2020, Queens District Lawyer Melinda Katz mentioned Wednesday.
The mindless violence exploded when Jeff obtained right into a parking dispute on the nook of Defoe and Ridgedale Streets in Springfield Gardens round 3 a.m., in accordance with officers.
Jeff, who was a passenger in a black Chevy Malibu, was boxed in by a rubbish truck and two different automobiles — a black Mercedes and a blue BMW — behind him.
Jeff requested the vehicles’ drivers to again up and an argument erupted with the occupants of the black Mercedes, main Jeff to attract his firearm whereas figuring out himself as an officer, Katz mentioned.
The black Mercedes then backed up, permitting Jeff to get again into the automobile and his driver, a coworker, to take a left on Defoe Avenue, in accordance with officers.
However Jeff obtained into one other argument seconds later, when one other automobile — a white Infiniti — touring the wrong way down Defoe Avenue blocked the car Jeff was in.
Somebody tapped the window and Jeff stepped out of the automobile earlier than feuding with the particular person.
Close by party-goers watched the chaos unfold earlier than a number of gunshots broke out, placing Jeff within the head and physique.
“Everybody started running, screaming. I lost a shoe and a fingernail,” a reveler advised The Put up on the time, whereas holding up a finger with a crimson faux nail lacking.
“I was almost trampled over.”
One other get together goer mentioned: “I heard someone shouting, ‘Yo, someone got shot, someone got shot.’ I ran to the corner. I saw a man laying there. [Then] I heard screeching like tires.”
Katz mentioned the three vehicles — the black Mercedes, the blue BMW and the white Infinity — fled after the capturing.
Investigators found 13 shell casing on the blood-soaked crime scene and imagine Jeff might have been shot together with his personal gun after he was blasted by bullets from the perp, in accordance with officers.
His firearm was by no means recovered.
Jeff was assigned to the Anna M. Kross Heart on Rikers Island and spent greater than two years on the job, in accordance with the correction’s union.
Katz’s workplace distributed the footage Wednesday, which captures a number of individuals screaming after a number of gunshots ring out.
The Queens DA is pleading with the general public to come back ahead with any data.
“Although cases grow cold, they are never forgotten,” Katz mentioned in a press release.
“We hope that by publicly releasing this surveillance footage we will bring more attention to this senseless unsolved murder.”
Katz is urging anybody with data to contact NYPD Crimestoppers through 800-577-TIPS or through the web hyperlink. All ideas are confidential and a $30,000 reward is being provided.
