COP KILLER CAUGHT
Susp in ’99 gunfight found hiding in Fla. Ex-con rapper had slew of online fans
A hip-hop musician hiding in plain sight in Florida is behind bars in the shooting death of an off-duty NYPD cop in a wild gun battle nearly 20 years ago, authorities said.
Lester Pearson, 43, who has a record of arrests on drugs and other charges, was busted in Jacksonville on Friday for the shooting death of Officer Vincent Ling in the Bronx.
Pearson had been living with his girlfriend and several young children in Jacksonville using the alias Michael Davis. He also performed as a rapper under the name Monsta Kodi, according to local news reports, and had more than 100,000 followers on Instagram.
Authorities collared Pearson as he drove out of his garage Friday morning. On the passenger seat of his vehicle, they found a handgun inside a small carrying case, a U.S. Marshals Service spokesman said.
Some of Pearson’s lyrics under the rap name Monsta Kodi seem to refer to what happened Dec. 29, 1999, at Sexton Place and E. Gun Hill Road in Baychester.
“I’d rather be judged by 12 than carried by six,” Monsta Kodi raps in a March 2018 song called “Gun Hill.” “I’m ready to get on some Gun Hill s--t. Every n----r with me is ready to kill s--t.”
Pearson shot Ling, who was 27 at the time, following a disagreement involving the narcotics officer’s sister, whom he once dated. Ling and Pearson had grown up in the neighborhood, and had some long-simmering beefs, cops said at the time.
Ling returned fire, and Pearson’s girlfriend at the time was wounded in the thigh as she sat behind the wheel of a Lincoln Navigator. She then crashed the vehicle into several other cars, injuring three people, none seriously.
At least 11 shots were fired, the Daily News reported at the time.
Ling was rushed to Jacobi Medical Center with a bullet in his spine. Pearson’s girlfriend was also taken to Jacobi in stable condition.
Because Ling worked undercover on a narcotics detail in Harlem, cops didn’t release his name when he was shot. He had been on the force for five years.
Pearson turned himself in to the Bronx DA’s office on Feb. 2, 2000, a bit more than a month after the shooting. But he soon skipped bail, said a police source.
In 2001, Pearson was arrested several more times — but all those cases were sealed, said the police source.
Pearson had an open warrant in Louisiana from 2007 after he was found transporting about 100 pounds of marijuana through St. Tammany Parish. He later attacked an officer in a state police barracks there, authorities said.
He was also arrested in Queens in 2008, in a case that has also been sealed. His record includes several arrests before Ling was shot.
Ling’s paralysis evidently was severe — he was still at Jacobi, paralyzed by the bullet in his spine, a month after the shooting. It was unclear when he died, but a police source said a homicide warrant for Pearson’s arrest was issued in 2009.
Members of Ling’s immediate family could not be reached Sunday.
NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill praised the arrest Sunday. “Law enforcement professionals demonstrate time & again that we are patient & that our collaborative forces have a very long reach,” he tweeted.
New York and Louisiana authorities both plan to extradite Pearson. Jacksonville police have also charged him with felony weapons possession.