A New York City police officer has been charged with attempted murder after shooting another motorist during an apparent road-rage episode in New Jersey and then driving off, prosecutors said on Friday.
The officer, Hieu Tran, is also charged with second-degree weapons possession and second-degree aggravated assault. A lawyer listed in court records as representing him, Gregory G. Smith, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The confrontation that led to the charges occurred on May 17 at around 11 p.m., according to a news release from the Camden County prosecutor, Grace C. MacAulay, and a probable cause affidavit.
Police officers from Voorhees Township responding to a multivehicle crash at the intersection of Route 73 and Cooper Road noticed that 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, a white S.U.V. arriving and the truck moving next to the S.U.V., the affidavit says.
Moments later, the footage showed the truck accelerating through a red light into oncoming traffic and colliding with other vehicles, the affidavit says. The S.U.V. also sped through the red light and drove off, the affidavit says.
Additional footage showed the driver of the S.U.V. stopping and buying gas with a credit card belonging to Officer Tran, the affidavit says. Detectives also determined that he owned a vehicle like the S.U.V. involved in the crash, the affidavit says.
Phone records and ballistic evidence that linked three 9 millimeter casings found at the scene to Officer Tran’s service weapon further connected him to the shooting, the affidavit says.
Officer Tran was taken into custody on Thursday at the New York Police Department, the release from Ms. MacAulay’s office says. He was being held while awaiting extradition to New Jersey and appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court for an extradition hearing on Friday.
The man who was shot, identified by law enforcement authorities only as a 30-year-old Voorhees Township resident, was taken to Cooper University Hospital in Camden in critical condition. He remained there on Friday.
Officer 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 as of Friday, the police said.
