A police officer who was allegedly shot by the husband of a fellow cop in the wee hours on a quiet Park Slope street went home from New York Methodist Hospital this week.
More than 100 of Andrew Suarez’s cop comrades cheered the 25-year-old officer as he was wheeled out of the Seventh Avenue hospital on Tuesday, where he had been recovering from wounds suffered in the Saturday, Feb. 10, shooting.
“I’m happy to be alive, guys,” Suarez said. “Thank you.”
The bizarre shooting, on Prospect Place and Sixth Avenue, near Suarez’s 78th Precinct stationhouse, still perplexed people from Park Slope to One Police Plaza.
Suarez and three other plainclothes officers were sitting in a police van when Jose Rivera, a 30-year-old ex-con married to a police officer, pulled up and engaged in a stare-down with the cops, according to the NYPD.
“You n—as got a beef?” Rivera allegedly said before pulling a black handgun and unloading it into the van, hitting Suarez under the arm.
The other three officers returned fire, but missed Rivera, who sped off down Sixth Avenue, cops said.
Hours later, cops pulled over the white Acura with Rivera’s wife, Police Officer Jacqueline Melendez, 37, behind the wheel. She claimed she was just parking the car,
She was later charged with evidence tampering and marijuana possession, but has spent most of the time since the shooting apologizing for the incident.
That apology didn’t impress Suarez’s fellow 78th Precinct officers this week.
“She’s a criminal as far as I’m concerned,” said one cop at the Sixth Avenue stationhouse.
Another was mostly angered by the fact that Melendez, a 13-year NYPD veteran, apparently aided her husband instead of arresting him.
“If my husband did that, I would’ve gone to hug him — but then slapped the cuffs right on him,” said another officer.
