Outrage at freeing cop killer
Anguished fam asks why convict gets parole
A cop killer serving 25 years to life for his role in the 1994 Bronx murder of a police officer trying to stop a robbery is to be released on parole next month — and the officer’s stunned family is asking why.
Javier Miranda didn’t admit to firing the shots that killed Officer Sean McDonald on March 15, 1994 — but prosecutors believe he helped his accomplice, Rodolpho Rodriguez, gain the upper hand in a desperate struggle over the murder weapon.
Miranda, 55, was granted release by the state parole board after an Aug. 31 hearing. He’s expected to be freed by Oct. 12, a state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision official said.
Rodriguez, who was denied parole after a November appearance before the board, won an appeal that gave him a new parole hearing and another shot at being released.
McDonald’s brother, Andrew, said he and his brother’s widow, Janet, made statements to the parole board asking that both men stay behind bars. He feels their anguish and fear have been ignored.
“It’s almost like it doesn’t matter. That’s the impression that I have — it’s just a checking of the box,” said McDonald, a retired NYPD detective. “They don’t pay attention to what the crime was that these guys did. They don’t care about the remaining victims.”
“I’m on this emotional rollercoaster,” Janet McDonald said. “Like one minute I’m OK. The next minute I want to cry . ... And then you go into the anger that our governor would allow this to happen.”
She added, “Now I have to live with the fact of, ‘Will he come after me? Will he hurt my family?’ ”
Officer Sean McDonald, 26, was assigned without a partner to guard an abandoned building when a passerby alerted him to a nearby robbery, his brother said.
Though witness accounts were muddled, investigators determined that the 44th Precinct cop approached Filo Fashions on Edward L. Grant Highway near E. 169th St. in Highbridge, and saw Miranda near the door.
As McDonald questioned Miranda, Rodriguez — armed with a gun — got a drop on the officer.
As the two struggled, Miranda hit the officer, giving Rodriguez the chance to shoot McDonald five times, authorities said.
If Miranda hadn’t hit the officer, Rodriguez never would have gotten off the fatal shots, Andrew McDonald said.
“He absolutely caused the death of my brother,” McDonald said of Miranda. “Because if he wouldn’t have struck him, who knows? He could have won the battle for the gun.”
The mortally wounded officer managed to call for help on his radio. His brother, an officer in the Bronx Task Force, heard and responded to his call.
“I remember there was a 44 (Precinct) car there, the door open, but there were no cops there,” he said. “My lieutenant just directed me — not knowing who the police officer who was shot was — he just directed me to start grabbing witnesses.”
Other cops on the scene asked where Sean McDonald was, since they knew he had been assigned to the area.
Not long after the other cops began asking that question, Andrew McDonald’s lieutenant pulled him aside and gave him the news.
“I didn’t see him until the hospital,” Andrew McDonald said.
Miranda pleaded guilty and fingered Rodriguez as the triggerman. Rodriguez’s lawyer claimed Miranda actually pulled the trigger. A jury convicted Rodriguez of murder.
Miranda and Rodriguez were linked to several other store robberies, cops said at the time.
Miranda “was a violent person who had done multiple violent crimes,” Andrew McDonald said.
“And for people that say he did his 25 years, or 27 years — OK. Do you want him living in your building? Do you want him living on your street? Do you want him working with your spouse, your daughter?”
“He never owned up to his true involvement in the crime,” McDonald said. “I don’t know how you can let someone out, especially if someone hasn’t taken ownership for such a violent act.”
The News was unable to reach Miranda or locate any of his relatives.
The Police Benevolent Association blasted the parole board, saying it has released 22 cop killers, including Miranda, since December 2017.
“Once again this parole board tortures the families of our fallen heroes,” said PBA President Patrick Lynch.
“It’s the latest chapter in the board’s shameful legacy in the Andrew Cuomo era.”
McDonald’s widow added, “I’ve just had enough — enough of them letting police killers go. They shouldn’t be allowed out.”