At a time when an off−duty cop was shot down by a fellow officer in Harlem, a Park Slope resident picked a poor way to vent his outrage at a police officer who had arrested him on a minor drug charge.
Officials said that 20−year−old Daquan Gardner, a resident of Fourth Street near Fifth Avenue, was arrested on four counts of reckless endangerment in the second degree as well as falsely reporting an incident when he made a bogus 911 call claiming that a cop had just been gunned down on the quiet Park Slope street.
Officials said that the frightening phone call was made on May 28. Police scrambled over to the scene, but found nothing.
Responding officers were still investigating the call when the anonymous tipster called 911 again, giving detailed information about the alleged shooting victim.
The caller even managed to rattle off the fallen cop’s badge number, officials said.
Cops ultimately left, but Gardner allegedly called a third time, still claiming that a cop had been shot on Fourth Street. He then made another bogus 911 call reporting an incident in another precinct.
While breathing a sigh of relief that all of the calls were unfounded and that no one was hurt, Lt. Patrick Malarkey of the 78th Precinct decided to do a little digging to find out just who made the bogus calls. Other cops could have been injured when they raced over there to the respond, he explained.
Since the caller gave a bogus name and call back number, Malarkey couldn’t directly reach out to the guy who decided to reach out and bother everyone.
But he did benefit from the information the caller gave and was able to identify the would−be victim — a Brooklyn narcotics cop.
He then contacted the officer and asked him why someone would want to report that he had been killed. It must have been someone who he had arrested or had a prior beef with him.
The narcotics cop said that he was having trouble with one man who he had arrested back on May 19. That man — Gardner — had his cell phone confiscated during the arrest and was constantly harassing the narcotics cop in an attempt to get the phone back.
The 911 calls were played and the narcotics cop identified Gardner’s voice.
Some further checking revealed that Gardner lived right across the street from where the 911 calls were made.
When he was in custody, Gardner confessed to the shenanigans, which Lt. Malarkey said could have had some dangerous ramifications.
