NYPD officer accused of seriously injuring man in road rage shooting

NEW YORK >> A New York City police officer has been charged with attempted murder after he shot another motorist during an apparent road rage episode in New Jersey and then drove away, it was announced Friday prosecutors.

The officer, Hieu Tran, is also charged with second-degree weapons possession and second-degree aggravated assault. An attorney listed in court records as representing Gregory G. Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The confrontation that led to the charges took place on May 17 around 11 p.m., according to a news release from Camden County Prosecutor Grace C. MacAulay and a probable cause affidavit.

Voorhees Township police officers responding to a multi-vehicle crash at the intersection of Route 73 and Cooper Road noticed the driver of a yellow truck involved in the crash had been shot, according to the affidavit.

Surveillance video reviewed by investigators showed the yellow truck stopping at a traffic light at the intersection, then a white SUV arriving and the truck moving alongside the SUV, the affidavit states.

Moments later, the footage showed the truck speeding through a red light into oncoming traffic and colliding with other vehicles, the affidavit states. The SUV also ran the red light and drove away, the affidavit states.

Additional footage showed the driver of the SUV stopping and purchasing gas with a credit card belonging to Tran, the affidavit states. Detectives also determined he owned a vehicle similar to the SUV involved in the crash, the affidavit states.

Phone records and ballistics evidence linking three 9mm shell casings found at the scene to Tran's service weapon also linked him to the shooting, the affidavit states.

Tran was taken into custody Thursday at the New York Police Department, the statement from MacAulay's office said. He was being held pending extradition to New Jersey and appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday for an extradition hearing.

The man who was shot, identified by law enforcement only as a 30-year-old Voorhees Township resident, was transported to Cooper University Hospital in Camden, New Jersey, in critical condition . He remained there on Friday.

Tran, 27, joined the police department in February 2021 and had been assigned to the public information office since 2023. He was previously assigned to the 28th Precinct in Harlem. He was suspended without pay Friday, police said.

This article was originally published in the New York Times.