A vigilante NYPD cop who took the law into his own hands and tried to catch the crooks who stole his SUV nearly killed a man who wasn’t even involved in the original crime when he shot him in the head, prosecutors said Thursday.
Officer Jonathan Baez turned himself in to face attempted murder charges Thursday, three months after shooting a passenger in a luxury car he tracked down who he suspected was involved in the theft of his SUV, officials said.
“The person who was shot in the head, we have conclusive proof was actually not involved in the theft of the officer’s car — and he’s the one who’s lying on a ventilator right now,” Assistant Bronx District Attorney Jon Veiga said during the officer’s arraignment in Bronx Supreme Criminal Court Thursday.
According to Veiga, Baez’s 2024 Honda CR-V was stolen from outside his home. Video reviewed by Baez showed a Hyundai Genesis pulling up next to his SUV before it was stolen.
Baez, 44, conducted over 215 unauthorized personal searches of NYPD databases to track down his vehicle and the Genesis, prosecutors say.
“He went from a crime victim on Saturday night, March 14, 6 p.m., to a vigilante, exercising over 200 searches of powerful NYPD databases,” Veiga said.
Baez’s apparent aim was “to track it down and to shoot the people in the car, without any regard to whether or not the people in the Genesis happen to be the people who stole his car,” Veiga added.
While off duty on March 16, two days after the SUV was stolen, Baez began trailing the Genesis on the Cross Bronx Expressway and the Major Deegan Expressway until the vehicle exited at E. 230th St., prosecutors said.
“We know all that because he very helpfully relayed this information in a play by play on a 911 call,” Veiga said.
When the Genesis driver got out on W. 231st St. near Albany Crescent in Kingsbridge about 9:15 p.m. March 16, Baez put the driver on the ground, straddled him and pressed a gun to his back. He then ordered the Genesis driver to call 911 and say he was being held at gunpoint.
“The driver was telling the 911 operators, ‘I’m being held with a gun and I don’t know why,’” Veiga said. “The driver was actually expressing a lot of confusion on the 911 call as to why he’s being held.”
Meanwhile a passenger in the rear of the Genesis jumped into the driver’s seat and attempted to drive away, prosecutors say.
Baez “then points his gun at the passenger side of the Genesis ordering the occupants not to move or I’ll shoot,” Veiga said. “As the Genesis begins to pull away, the defendant fires two shots into the Genesis, one through the front passenger window, one through the rear passenger window. It’s that second shot which then enters the rear of the head of the person seated in the front passenger seat.”
A stray shot shattered a window at The Bronx Public, a restaurant across street, and lodged near the ceiling.
Respond NYPD officers found Baez still straddling the original Genesis driver on the street with a gun pressed into his back, prosecutors say. Baez gave up his gun to the responding officers, identified himself as a member of the NYPD and acknowledged he’d fired twice, prosecutors say.
Surveillance video obtained by the Daily News in March shows some of that sequence of that events.
Baez, assigned to the NYPD’s Intelligence Bureau, was stripped of his gun and shield and put on modified duty in the wake of the shooting and later suspended without pay.
Prosecutors acknowledged there is evidence the original driver of the Genesis who Baez was straddling in the street as well as the passenger who then jumped behind the wheel may have been involved in the SUV theft.
But not so the 30-year-old front seat passenger shot in the head. He remains on a respirator nearly three months after the shooting.
Prosecutors say the shooting victim is currently unable to move anything but his eyes and is unaware when his family is in the room with him at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell.
“He had emergency surgery but the bullet was lodged too deep to fully remove it,” Veiga said. “So suffice to say he’s in very grave condition today.”
Baez was escorted into the courtroom Thursday with his hands cuffed in front of him. He wore dark glasses, a gray polo shirt, dark jeans and black shoes.
He was arraigned on a raft of charges including attempted murder, assault, criminal use of a firearm, computer trespass and kidnapping and ordered held on $250,000 bond. His lawyer said Baez will make bail.
The 12-year NYPD veteran faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
“Police officers are sworn to serve and protect the public, and even when they are off duty, they are expected to conduct themselves with integrity,” Bronx DA Darcel Clark said in a statement.
Baez was assigned to the Intelligence Bureau’s uniformed operations last February. His duties there included posts at both Gracie Mansion and City Hall, officials said.
“I think it’s very important that people not rush to judgment,” Baez’s lawyer Mark Bederow told reporters after his client’s arraignment. “It’s just important to have an open mind and respect a presumption of innocence.”
The wounded man’s girlfriend lives in a building just steps away from the crime scene and was on the phone with her boyfriend when he was shot, a neighbor told the Daily News at the time.
Following the shooting, Mayor Mamdani said he was “incredibly troubled” by the actions of the off-duty cop.
“I’m glad that the NYPD is investigating,” Mamdani said at the time.
