Boot ‘coward’ cop: bereft kin

CARMEN OJEDA arises each morning to two painful truths: Her daughter is still gone. And the NYPD officer accused of watching the little girl die is still on the job.

“He was a coward,” Ojeda said Friday as the second anniversary of her 11-year-old’s tragic demise approached. “He should be suspended. . . . He shouldn’t be a police officer.”

Family members and friends turned out for a Brooklyn hearing — some with signs demanding “Justice For Briana” — as the Ojedas’ lawsuit against the city continues its slow wind through the courts.

Briana Ojeda was suffering an asthma attack on Aug. 27, 2010, as her panicked mother drove the wrong way down Henry St. in Cobble Hill. She was headed toward Long Island University in a desperate attempt to get help for her daughter.

Officer Alfonso Mendez pulled her over just three blocks away and refused her request to call an ambulance, the mom said. The cop, instead, began writing her a summons.

As little Briana’s condition worsened, the officer ignored the mother’s begging for help.

“Mendez refused, stating that he ‘didn’t do CPR,’ ” claimed a lawsuit filed by the family. The girl later died at the hospital. Mendez was slapped with department charges with failure to take police action, but the case is unresolved — not unusual in cases with pending litigation. He remains on modified duty as a Bronx housing cop.

City lawyers moved Friday to dismiss the suit. A judge will issue a ruling within 60 days. With Oren Yaniv

and Rocco Parascandola

Briana Ojeda in a school photo.