HEY, HOOKER, THAT’S MY GUN!
Cop loses weapon as gal speeds off with car
An off-duty city cop got more than he bargained for from a Brooklyn hooker.
Unlucky-in-lust NYPD veteran Ali Sheppard was suspended Wednesday after the prostitute sped off with his car and service weapon while he visited an ATM to cover the tab for her services, police sources said Wednesday.
The cop's Smith & Wesson, left inside the hot car, was still missing when police busted hooker Taquanna Lawton about 24 hours after she left Sheppard stranded and unsatisfied on a Brownsville sidewalk.
“You gotta be f---ing kidding me,” Sheppard's stunned father Eugene Sheppard said Wednesday outside the cop's Brownsville home. “Excuse my lingo, man. This is a surprise.”
Mistake No. 1 for Sheppard, 38, came when he stopped to pick up Lawton at the corner of Liberty Ave. and Sackman St. in Brownsville shortly after midnight Tuesday, cops said. Once the twosome agreed on a price, Sheppard headed toward an East New York hotel — but he stopped first to take some cash out of the machine, sources said.
Mistake No. 2 quickly ensued: Sheppard left Lawton alone in the car while making his withdrawal.
Mistake No. 3: The 13-year police veteran left the engine running and the keys inside, too.
Lawton, 20, of Albany, threw the idling 2015 Jeep Wrangler into gear and zipped away, leaving the chastened Sheppard to report that a lady of the evening disappeared in the night with both his car and his NYPDissued gun.
The fugitive prostitute remained on the loose until her Brooklyn arrest at about 12:10 a.m. Wednesday, sources said.
Even then, there was more bad news for Sheppard: Though his Jeep was recovered when Lawton was arrested, his handgun was no longer inside the vehicle, sources said.
"He was immediately suspended," said NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill. "He'll be facing some disciplinary charges. We are working on the investigation."
The hooker's uncle, speaking in his Brooklyn apartment, was surprised by the arrest — although he acknowledged that his niece had her problems.
“In my opinion, she's been a troubled girl,” the uncle said. “She's got a lot of things going on in her life. I was surprised when I heard it, but I don't really stay in touch with her like that.”
Lawton's grandmother, who also lives in Albany, called the uncle with word of the young woman's arrest on a charge of grand larceny auto.
Eugene Sheppard said that his son, who has been deployed overseas twice for the military, returned to their home after the carjacking and never said one word about the incident. Ali Sheppard left early Wednesday morning, supposedly headed to an appointment at an unspecified clinic, his father said.
“I didn't even see him,” the dad said. “I was in the shower.”
The reeling father had trouble wrapping his head around the story of his son's dalliance with a prostitute and the mess that followed.
“I've never heard that he would pick up a prostitute,” said Eugene Sheppard. “I'm in shock, actually. This is a child that I raised by myself as a single parent and I've never known anything like this to happen, ever. He's a good kid.”
The concerned dad said he planned to discuss what happened with his son, and expressed hope the NYPD would provide Ali with “some kind of help.” No criminal charges were brought against Ali Sheppard.
Neighborhood residents echoed Sheppard's assessment of his crime-busting son.
“A soft-spoken, stay-tohimself type of person,” said Jeff Smith, 62, who has known Ali Sheppard since the cop was a kid. “He's always worked. First military and then when he became a cop.
“I've never known Ali to deal with people like that in the street. Ali's always to himself. Whenever I see him he's going to work or coming home from work.”