He was beaten senseless

Surveillance tape shows off-duty cop punched, stomped before he's shot by Bx. officer

BY TONY SCLAFANI, JESS WISLOSKI and ALISON GENDAR
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

White Castle in the Bronx where off-duty cop Eric Hernandez was beaten by five thugs before he stumbled out. 


At 4:55:25 a melee erupts as five thugs gang up on Hernandez, relentlessly stomping the off-duty cop. 

Chilling video from a Bronx burger joint shows five thugs beating an off-duty cop senseless - possibly explaining why he didn't budge when another officer told him to drop his gun moments before shooting him, police sources said yesterday.
Detectives released the surveillance tape last night, hoping to identify the five goons who jumped off-duty Officer Eric Hernandez inside a Tremont White Castle early Saturday - punching and stomping the intoxicated cop without mercy.

The tape, revealed as the cop fought for his life, shows Hernandez knocked to the ground, then swarmed by men who pulled his shirt over his head and pummeled him.

The beating took a little over a minute before a bloody Hernandez shook his attackers and crawled outside into the 5 a.m. predawn darkness.

As the badly battered Hernandez left, one of his attackers held up the bag of burgers the strapping 24-year-old officer had dropped. Then, in a twisted victory dance, the assailant donned the off-duty cop's baseball cap, backward.

Hernandez, beaten - and drunk from club hopping - staggered into the parking lot.

There he confronted another White Castle customer he mistakenly thought was one of his attackers.

"He was drunk and bleeding, from his nose or mouth. He said, 'Shut up! Shut up! I know you did it!' and cocked the gun and held it at my head," said Brian Muñoz of the Bronx.

It was then that veteran uniformed Officer Alfredo Toro and his partner rolled up.

Toro shouted, "Drop the gun!" four times, a witness and police sources told the Daily News.

"I don't think he knew the .police were there," Muñoz said yesterday. "He looked wobbly. It could be from alcohol or the beating they gave him."

Instead of obeying or saying he was a cop, Hernandez spun, his gun up, witnesses said. Toro shot Hernandez three times.

Hernandez, who has been with the NYPD 11/2 years, was shot once in the abdomen and once in each leg, severing the main arteries in both.

"We are looking into whether that beating Officer Hernandez took interfered with his ability to obey the command to drop his weapon," a high-ranking police source said.

The star running back for the NYPD football team barely made it to St. Barnabas Hospital. He needed more than 70 units of blood after the shooting, which came just five hours after he finished a shift at the Bronx's 52nd Precinct.

Surgeons got the bleeding under control yesterday. Even so, Hernandez's family fears he could still lose his battle for life. "He had a slim chance to live. It was less than fifty-fifty. It was like a prayer and a wish," said the cop's stepaunt Barbara Chiavelli, 39.

When his blood was tested at the hospital, after the shooting, his blood-alcohol level was twice the legal driving limit of 0.08, a medical source said.

As the family kept a bedside vigil, Chiavelli blamed Toro for being too quick on the trigger.

"There was no way in God's name he should have fired," she said yesterday. "He saw a boy beaten so bad that he looked like a monster. He was beat so bad he couldn't talk. The only reason he stood up with his gun was adrenaline."

Officials have called the shooting a tragic misunderstanding, and fellow cops say Toro did the best he could under horrible conditions.

The nightmare started when Hernandez stopped for a bite at the Webster Ave. fast-food joint after a night of visiting several area clubs, a police source said.

Among them was El Vaquero Chicano on Webster Ave., where he hung out from 3 a.m. to about 4:30 a.m., said his pal, the joint's manager, Jerry Dickens. "There was nothing wrong with him," Dickens said. "He wasn't drunk. He was fine."

A female relative had driven him to the clubs. But it was unclear how he got to the restaurant at 4:50 a.m. when he strolled into the White Castle, wearing a white coat and blue baseball cap. His attackers had been there at least 10 minutes.

A man in a gray, hooded sweatshirt and black do-rag taunted Hernandez as he went to .order. "You should be paying for our sodas," he told the off-duty cop, witnesses said.

The cop took his bag of food and left, only to come back a few seconds later as if he forgot something. He headed out a second time, but again returned.

The man in the gray sweatshirt slid next to him - and at 4:55 a.m. slapped Hernandez's chest. A second later, the thug sucker-punched him. Hernandez did not raise a hand, the video showed.

The cop fell to the ground, and the five beat, kicked and hurled things at him, the tape and witnesses confirmed.

"Even after he fell to the floor the one guy just kept stomping on his head," said Pedro Feliciano, 20, who was eating in the White Castle when the melee broke out.

Hernandez rose and fell several times during the beating. He finally crawled away.

One of his attackers - wearing a "Stop Snitching" T-shirt - mugged for the camera, while the instigator grabbed Hernandez's food and cap and mocked him.

"After Hernandez left it seemed okay for a little while, like two minutes. Then I heard one of the guys in front of me say, 'Let me give this guy his fries,' saying it like, sarcastically," Feliciano said.

Eric Hernandez (The Officer):

Picture Of The "Gang-Up":

that's some crazy stuff... seriously.

you think your safe when cops at the place you are at but no..

b,Jan 30 2006, 7:34 PM]( Hes cute (: ) I think that the shotting, couldnt be controlled. He was delirious and drunk. Although he could have followed the order, and had actual control over it, I think that something should be done, but not something serious. I hope they find those kids.

Thats hella fuckedd up. Ahaha Jason, attack them with your switchblade. , and Im at McDonalds and stuff at 3-4 in the morning
Its hard to defend yourself when there are five people on you. You'd think you'd have time to attack back, time to defend yourself, but when your drunk and the ratio is 1:5 then, I dount youd have to to get out your switchblade and start slicin` kids up. Oh, and, You carry a switchblade ? Why ? I thought you said your neighborhood was really good.

^ she's got a very valid point the guilt does weight down youself