PEP Officer Is Shot Trying To Stop Robbery

PEP Officer Is Shot Trying To Stop Robbery

By HOWARD MEGDAL

An off-duty Parks Enforcement Patrolman was shot while trying to stop a robbery at a Queens barbershop June 29.

After his shift ended, Derrick Johnson, 45, was getting his hair cut at the Millenium Barbershop on Merrick Blvd. at about 6:20 p.m. when two men entered, one with a bag, the other with a gun, and demanded money from about a dozen people.

Tried to Grab Gun

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said that when Mr. Johnson tried to grab the gun from the robber, he was shot in the left side of his chest, with the bullet exiting his left hip bone.

"The doctor said he was quite lucky," Mr. Benepe said in a June 30 phone interview. "An inch either way would have been a lot worse."

Neither perpetrator had been apprehended as this newspaper went to press July 3.

Mr. Benepe said by the time he got to the hospital at about 10 p.m., Mr. Johnson had "already been cleaned up and bandaged." He was kept overnight for precautionary reasons and then released.

The Commissioner said Mr. Johnson was, to his knowledge, the first PEP officer to be shot since the position was created in 1981. He praised the PEP officer's valor.

'A Terrific Officer'

"He's a terrific officer. I've known him for years," Mr. Benepe said of the 19-year veteran of the department. "It shows the type of public service mentality our PEP officers have."

District Council 37 Local 983's Mark Rosenthal, who represents Mr. Johnson, expressed appreciation for his efforts. "He did everything possible to protect people as a robbery was in progress," Mr. Rosenthal said the day after the shooting. "And this proves how important PEP officers are in parks. The parks would be teeming with crime if not for them."