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Drunk Cop Crashes Cruiser After Fundraiser for Slain Officer, Sources Say

By Murray Weiss | February 28, 2012 2:20pm
File photo of a NYPD patrol car.
File photo of a NYPD patrol car.
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Flickr/Nick.Allen

BROOKLYN — A "raucous" fund-raising party for slain Police Officer Peter Figoski's family ended Tuesday morning with an on-duty cop crashing his cruiser in an apparent drunk driving accident, DNAinfo has learned.

Christopher Morris, 31, a five-year veteran who was in uniform, was taken into custody after the 4:10 a.m. smashup in East New York, sources said. He allegedly crashed the patrol car into a light post at Sutter and Schenk avenues causing it to fall onto a parked car, sources said.

He was charged with drunken driving and refusing to take a breath test, police said.

Internal Affairs investigators seized video from around the Lindenwood Diner, where the party was held. The hangout is well-known for clientele ranging from cops to gangsters, and investigators were questioning other officers Tuesday morning to determine if any other on-duty cops were at the party, sources said.

Officer Peter Figoski was killed in the line of duty Dec. 12, 2011.
Officer Peter Figoski was killed in the line of duty Dec. 12, 2011.
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NYPD

Scores of officers and supervisors attended the event Monday night at the eatery on Linden Boulevard and Sapphire Street, which was billed as a "memorial" for Figoski's family and included his four grieving daughters.

Figoski, a 22-year veteran who worked in East New York's 75th Precinct, was shot to death in December when he responded to a robbery in Cypress Hills.

As Monday night's affair continued past midnight, it became "raucous," a law enforcement source said.

Several cops apparently tried to prevent their 75th Precinct colleague from getting behind the wheel of his blue-and-white cruiser, a source said, but he somehow still managed to drive away.

It is not clear where the accident occurred, but he smacked into a parked car en route to the station house on Sutter Avenue.

No one was injured in the accident.

The Brooklyn District Attorney was also investigating, sources said. Charges had yet to be filed.