Police Officer Hieu Tran wept while being walked out of Manhattan Criminal Court Friday afternoon after being extradited to New Jersey to face attempted murder charges in an apparent road rage shooting.
Tran, 27, an officer assigned as a photographer with the NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information (DCPI) office, was arrested Friday for allegedly shooting a 30-year-old man in an apparent road rage incident on May 17 along the Cooper Road in Camden County.
Prosecutors said Tran allegedly shot the victim three times before fleeing the scene, leaving a multi-vehicle crash in his wake. The victim remains hospitalized nearly a month later.
Sources familiar with the investigation said that cops tied Tran to the crime thorugh surveillance footage, credit card usage records, and cellphone records. Ballistics analysis also found that the bullets had been fired from Tran’s service weapon.
Officers from the Camden County, NJ Sheriff’s Office arrived at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse in Lower Manhattan just before 5 p.m. on June 7, holding chains used minutes later to bring out Tran, who wept as the officers marched him into the back of a vehicle.
Several cops who spoke with amNewYork Metro said Tran’s arrest has left them shocked — noting that he was well-liked in the department and “would have been on the back of the list” of people they thought could be capable of such an act.
“He was such a nice guy,” one source said.
Tran performed social media duties for the NYPD and was often seen with cameras slung around his neck taking photographs, most notably seen documenting mass arrests at Columbia University on April 30.
Tran is facing attempted murder charges, along with second-degree aggravated assault and second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.
According to an NYPD spokesperson, Tran has been suspended pending prosecution.
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