A would-be robber was shot in the face Sunday night as he tried to take an off-duty correction officer’s motorcycle, officials said this week.
The alleged thief, identified as 30-year-old Efrain Rivera of 84th Street in Bay Ridge, was listed in stable condition at a local hospital with a bullet hole in his cheek.
Officials said that the victim, an 18-year-old veteran of the Department of Correction who is currently assigned to Rikers Island, was putting his Suzuki motorcycle into his garage near the corner of Avenue T and East 11th Street at 11:30 p.m. on July 13 when Rivera allegedly crept up to him and flashed a pistol.
As the two began to struggle, the off-duty correction officer pulled his own weapon and fired, hitting Rivera in the face.
Rivera allegedly tried to run off, but the jail guard tackled and held him until cops could take him into custody.
In the end, both were hospitalized – Rivera for the gunshot wound to the face and the correction officer for trauma.
Officials later learned that the pistol Rivera allegedly showed during the robbery was a fake.
Police believe that he was trying to take the correction officer’s motorcycle when he was shot.
As this paper went to press, Rivera was recuperating at Kings County Hospital, where he has been charged with robbery, assault, grand larceny, criminal possession of a weapon and menacing.
The robbery is hauntingly similar to a shooting that took place in Canarsie, officials said.
Back in April, another off-duty Department of Correction’s officer was shot when thieves tried to rob him of his motorcycle near East 88th Street in Remsen Village.
Kenneth Duncan, 41, an avid motorcyclist and proud owner of a red Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14, was preparing his bike for the spring riding season with a friend in his garage when two men confronted them.
The four had words and the two strangers made threats, claiming that they were going to steal one of the motorcycles, according to published reports.
The two men left, but soon returned, apparently trying to make good on their promise.
During the exchange that followed, one of the suspects pulled a gun and fired. Duncan, who was licensed to have a firearm, reportedly drew his weapon as well.
At the end of the ensuing gunfight, Duncan was the one on the ground, felled by a bullet to the head.
The two men ran off empty-handed.
As of this writing, cops do not believe that the two incidents are connected.
