Cop quits in grief
Undercover traumatized over killing innocent man
AN UNDERCOVER cop who fatally shot a bystander during a gun-buy operation has resigned from the NYPD — too distraught to remain on the force, the Daily News has learned.
The former detective, who sources say suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder, left the NYPD in October with a tax-free disability pension. He now lives out of state after being a city cop for a decade.
“It’s an indication how traumatic police work can really be,” said Michael Palladino, head of the Detectives’ Endowment Association. “Our detective’s actions were in good faith and in accordance with the law, but the result was too traumatic for him to continue.”
The former cop could not be reached for comment. Neither Palladino nor the NYPD would release his name. He wasn’t charged in the 2015 shooting of 61-year-old Felix Kumi. And earlier this month, the NYPD ruled the shooting did not violate department guidelines.
“But the fact is he killed an innocent man,” said a police source familiar with the investigation. “That’s extremely difficult to deal with.”
The undercover picked up a suspect in the Bronx and was planning to meet an accomplice in Mount Vernon, Westchester County, to buy two guns. Once in Mount Vernon, Alvin Smothers, then 37, jumped into the backseat of the detective’s car. Police said Smothers held a fake gun to the back of the undercover’s head and robbed him of $2,400.
The suspect got out of the car and ran. The detective chased him. Smothers pointed a gun at the undercover during the chase, and Smothers was shot. The suspect survived and has been charged with murder. Kumi, who was walking nearby, was hit twice twice by errant bullets in the Aug. 28, 2015, incident. A married father of two and devout Jehovah’s Witness, he died at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx the next day. Kumi’s relatives could not be reached for comment Monday. A lawyer for his widow, Wanda Spruill-Kumi, who has filed a $20 million lawsuit, also could not be reached.
“Mr. Kumi was blameless, and this tragedy has tested and tried his family,” former Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said after the shooting. “I pray that they may find comfort in their hope of Resurrection and awakening.”