The one-time poster boy for bail reform in New York is now wanted for attempted murder, the Daily News has learned.
An arrest warrant has been issued for Pedro Hernandez, 23, for an Aug. 28 shooting outside of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Midtown Manhattan, police sources said.
Two groups of people were playing a card game under scaffolding on E. 50th St. near Madison Ave. when a fight broke out at 4:50 p.m., cops said.
One of the men won a gold chain in the game, but the loser was not happy about giving up the necklace, witnesses told The News. The angry man walked over to a black BMW, grabbed a gun from inside and let off a single shot at one of the card players, authorities said.
“The guy starting running and then they started chasing each other down the block,” a nearby hotel bellman recalled. “Everybody started running on the street … mostly tourists and some New Yorkers.”
The men got into their cars and raced around the block, with the BMW chasing a Mercedes into a nearby parking garage, witnesses said. One man got out of each car and fought each other for less than a minute before returning to their vehicles and driving off.
A 29-year-old man was seriously injured in the fight. It was not immediately disclosed if Hernandez was the triggerman outside the cathedral or involved in the fight in the garage.
Hernandez remained on the loose Saturday, although cops have been ordered to take him into custody and bring him to court as soon as they spot him on the street.
“The defendant will not respond to a summons,” states the warrant, which was issued by Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Melissa Lewis on Thursday and shared with The News.
Hernandez became a cause celebre for bail reform after spending a year behind bars because he couldn’t make bail on a 2015 shooting charge. Bail was initially set at $250,000 and was reduced to $100,000. He was freed when the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights charity paid his bond.
The Bronx district attorney’s office threw out the case when a crucial witness stopped cooperating and the victim couldn’t identify the gunman.
Hernandez has been arrested five times since he was released from Rikers in 2017. He was busted four times for driving with a suspended license and other motor vehicle offenses, authorities said. He was also nabbed for slashing a person during a Bronx robbery in 2019, police said.
A call and an email to a lawyer who represented Hernandez in the past were not immediately returned.
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Days like this, i ENVY the cops in films like Judge Dredd… Where they could dispense justice ON THE SPOT.