New York Daily News

Police aren’t joking: A comedian is wanted in shooting on the subway

- BY ROCCO PARASCANDO­LA AND THOMAS TRACY

Cops say he’s a funnyman with a firearm, and he’s wanted for shooting someone on the subway — no joke.

Marcos Cofresi, 30, a standup comic who likes to crack wise about cops, has been sought by police since the violent Jan. 28 clash on a Manhattan train in which a 34-year-old man was wounded, the NYPD says..

Just recently, investigat­ors learned that Cofresi is a comedian that goes by the stage name Leo Cofresi, said NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig.

Cofresi (both photos) was with his girlfriend when an accidental bump with the victim on a Brooklyn-bound N train rumbling toward the Canal St. station led to a nearly deadly shooting. “There’s a staredown between the two guys,” Essig said. “Marcos then pulls a gun, shoots [his victim].”

Cofresi, of Bushwick, fired twice, striking the man once in the left arm and once in the torso, police said.

He got off the train at Canal St. with his girlfriend and took off.

He was wearing a New York jacket, a Yankees baseball cap and a surgical mask with a print of the lower half of a human skull on it when the shooting took place.

Medics took his victim to Bellevue Hospital. He’s expected to recover from his wounds, cops said.

The victim was also with his girlfriend when the shooting occurred, police said.

Cofresi has performed at the Greenwich Village Comedy Club. At the Dania Beach Improv in Florida in April 2022, he joked about the recent push to defund the NYPD.

“Remember when people wanted to get rid of cops? Remember that?” he asked the audience, according to a video of his routine he posted on TikTok. “Like a year ago? Some dude in a turtleneck was like ‘We should get rid of cops!’ I was like, ‘You look very robbable!’

“I was like, ‘Are you a fighter? Do you own a gun? Why do you want to get rid of cops?’ ” Confresi said onstage.

“He’s like, ‘No I’m not a fighter. I’m a lover.’ I was like ‘Nah, you’re a victim. We’re going to rob you, Dawg!’ ”

In another standup show last year, Confresi joked that “singing makes everything sound less serious,” including talking about criminal activity.

Confresi, who has a telltale scar under his right eye, may have been returning home from a gig in the Flatiron District when he shot his victim, police said.

He has been arrested twice before, for marijuana possession and turnstile jumping, a police source with knowledge of the case said.

Police were asking for the public’s help locating Cofresi.

Anyone with informatio­n regarding his whereabout­s was urged to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.

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