metrocard
Legend
Family outraged at police shooting of Bronx man defending daughter with bat
BY MATT LYSIAK AND ALISON GENDAR
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Wednesday, December 10th 2008, 11:35 AM
Police investigate the scene of the Bronx shooting outside of 2710 Bainbridge Ave.
The bat allegedly wielded by Alex Figueroa.
A Bronx man who was defending his teenage daughter was shot and killed by cops last night after he allegedly charged at them with a baseball bat, police sources said.
The victim, identified by sources as Alex Figueroa, was shot once in the chest shortly before midnight yesterday and died at St. Barnabas hospital, police said.
Figueroa's family was outraged by the shooting.
"The police are liars. My husband didn't move - and now they are going to pay for what they did,"
said
Figueroa's distraught wife, Sandra. "I was standing right next to him when they shot him dead. He had his arms at his side. He was doing nothing."
Officers were called to 2710 Bainbridge Avenue just before midnight for a report of a man with a gun, police said. Figueroa had gone to a fourth-floor apartment armed with a bat to confront his daughter's boyfriend, police and the victim's family said.
"The two men upstairs were disrespectful to my daughter - very disrespectful - and my husband went up there to defend her," the victim's wife said.
Police sources said Figueroa was enraged, screaming and swinging the bat. When officers from the Bronx' 52nd Precinct arrived, they told Figueroa to freeze and drop the bat. Instead, Figueroa lunged and swung at them, police sources said. One cop fire one round, striking Figueroa in the chest.
"Police didn't say freeze - they didn't say nothing - they just shot a man with a baseball bat,' the victim's wife countered.
"My husband was a church-going man. We moved to this country two years ago to pursue the American dream and look what happened to us - look what we get."
This happened right around my block.
Its kinda scary how any little thing can get you killed by cops in NYC.
If I'm ever in a situation like that I'll just get on my knees and make sure I'm distant from any object that is a "threat" to cops, despite the fact they're completely equipped with all types of weapons and out number a person.
****ing puercos.