Frustrated that his attempts at seduction had failed, a New York narcotics detective picked up an orange and threw it in the direction of a woman who had rejected him inside a New York City bar, smashing a glass in front of her.
When a bartender ordered him to leave the Horses and Divorces bar in Brooklyn, the detective punched him in the face. And when a bouncer tackled him to throw him out, he pulled out a gun and fired twice, fortunately not striking anybody.
Stephen Abreu, an investigator with the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor for the City of New York, was arrested and charged with felony attempted murder, reckless endangerment in the first degree, attempted assault with intention to cause physical injury, menacing and several other misdemeanors.
Judge Hilary Gingold allowed Abreu to be released without bail despite prosecutors asking for a $50,000 bail.
According to Gothamist:
Early Friday morning, Ana Yamel was dancing at Horses & Divorces, her local Williamsburg bar, when a stranger approached her on the dance floor. It was close to 3:00 a.m., and the Bedford Avenue hotspot had mostly emptied out.
“All of a sudden this guy is really, really close behind me,” recalled Yamel, a 32-year-old film director. “I gave him a look like: what the fuck are you doing?”
Yamel left to sit at the other end of the bar with her two female friends, but noticed the man still staring at her. Moments later, he grabbed an orange out of a basket on the bar, she says, and chucked it in their direction. It smashed a glass in front of them.
“He was clearly very drunk and annoyed that we were ignoring him,” said Annie Pearlman, a 31-year-old graphic designer and friend of Yamel. “It’s just another example of many of a man taking a rejection and turning it into violence.”
Abreu has worked as an investigator with the prosecutor’s office for four years where he investigates felony drug crimes for the city’s five district attorneys. He is also listed as a trustee for the New York City Detective Investigators Association.
Witnesses told Gothamist that Abreu had walked into the bar with another man who took off running when his buddy began fighting with bar staff. Considering birds of a feather flock together, there is a strong chance that friend is also a cop.
