Originally Published:Thursday, July 7th 2011, 9:50 AM
Updated: Thursday, July 7th 2011, 3:44 PM
Updated: Thursday, July 7th 2011, 3:44 PM
An off-duty cop shot a man who allegedly grabbed another officer's gun and opened fire Thursday during a fight over a woman outside a Brooklyn bar, authorities said.
Witnesses said the argument broke out around 4 a.m. inside the Old Gallery bar in Kensington, and later moved outside after one of the cops inexplicably called Pablo Negron a "rabbit chinchilla."
"People got drunk and they start fighting," said Daria Saldiran, 25, who was with the victim in the bar celebrating a friend's birthday. "It goes outside and then \[the shooting\] happened so fast."
Negron - who pals said goes by the street name "Kurupt" - was hit in the side and the thigh and was taken to Lutheran Hospital in stable condition and is expected to live.
Sources identified the two off-duty cops as Jason Reynolds, 28, and Albert Lloyd, 37, who work in the 70th Precinct's anti-crime unit.
Each has been on the force six years and had finished working a 6 p.m.- 2 a.m. shift before coming to the bar, police said..
A Massachusetts woman who was at the bar and on a date with 26-year-old Negron said the trouble began when Lloyd made a pass at her.
"Oh cutie, where are you from?" she quoted Lloyd as saying.
"I said, 'I'm not from here and unfortunately I am accompanied right now, so I'm not going to speak to you,'" recalled the woman, who declined to give her name.
She said Lloyd, who she didn't know was a cop, then sent a drink over to her, which she sent back.
When he saw that she was with Negron, the woman said Lloyd uttered the unusual insult - likening the man's hair to that of a small fuzzy creature.
The two men then almost came to blows, but the woman said she managed to smooth things over, telling Negron to "calm down, relax, leave it alone."
But when she later went to the bathroom as the bar was getting ready to close, the fight erupted again.
Police say as the officers walked out of the bar, Reynolds was bumped by a 21-year-old pal of Negron's named Jonathan LeDuc.
"What are you looking at?" NYPD Deputy Inspector Kim Royster quoted LeDuc as saying to Reynolds.
Royster said Reynolds then pulled out his badge.
"I don't want any problems," she quoted Reynolds as saying. "I'm a cop."
"I don't care who you are," responded LeDuc, who then punched Reynolds so hard his earring fell out, according to Royster.
LeDuc then called to his pals for help and they began attacking Lloyd.
Negron - who lives in Cobble Hill and has a rap sheet with busts for drugs, assaults trespassing and weapons charges - put Reynolds in a headlock, Royster said.
Witness Eddy Vidal, 27, said he saw Lloyd try to pistol-whip Negron, but his gun fell to the ground in the struggle.
Royster said Negron than picked up Lloyd's Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol and began firing at Reynolds.
She said Reynolds then pulled his gun and ordered Negron to drop the weapon, but he kept firing. Reynolds returned fire with his Glock 9mm, striking Negron twice.
In all, each weapon was fired nine times, Royster said.
"The dude picked up the gun because he was scared," Vidal said. "He didn't deserve to get shot."
After hearing the fusillade, the Negron's gal pal ran outside and found him bleeding on the ground.
"I ran to him. I tried to keep him conscious. I was slapping him, but that didn't work. There was a big blood spot," she said, "All he kept saying was, 'Just talk to my mom.'"
Cops say a man named Jose Rivera ran off with Lloyd's gun, which was later found stashed on the roof of a nearby building.
Reynolds, who works as a police union rep, had a blood alcohol content of .04 - half the legal limit - and was deemed fit for duty at the time of the shooting, Royster said.
Lloyd was also deemed fit for duty.
Negron, LeDuc, Rivera and two others have been arrested for their role in the melee but the exact charges were pending.
The NYPD said it investigating whether Reynolds and Lloyd had acted properly.
Neighbor Ray Krawiec, 39, said the bar - known to regulars as "OGs" - has long been a trouble spot.
"Every morning, when I get up for work there's brawls going on," he said. "They're all spewing from that bar. That's a horrible bar."
Regulars said Reynolds - who they knew as "J.R." - and Lloyd were fixtures at the bar nearly every Wednesday night, but no one knew they were cops. The bar is not on the department's list of off-limits places.
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