The hero cop who was shot after a shootout with an armed robber on lifetime parole was released from hospital Wednesday as the suspect’s 42-year criminal history came to light.
NYPD Police Officer Rich Wong waved as he was wheeled out of Jamaica Hospital on Nov. 20. Wong, a seven-year veteran of the force who is currently assigned to 103rd Precinct, suffered a gunshot wound to the thigh on Tuesday night on Jamaica Avenue and 161st Street in Queens after attempting to stop 57-year-old Gary Worthy during the robbery of a bodega.
Worthy, who police say was a career criminal and on lifetime parole, opened fire inside the bodega and on the street, during which a female bystander was also injured. Wong shot Worthy in the face, killing him.
Yet one question lingered among the cops and police union leaders who greeted Wong as he left the hospital Wednesday afternoon: Why was Worthy out on the streets at all that fateful Tuesday night?
According to sources familiar with Worthy’s record, the suspect has been arrested 23 times dating back to the early 1980s, including 17 times on felony charges.
Six days before Tuesday’s shooting, Worthy was in a Queens Criminal Courtroom for arraignment on charges of drug possession and resisting arrest — yet was nonetheless released from custody without bail. The Queens District Attorney’s office said those offenses did not make him eligible to be held on bail.
“The cops are doing their jobs, why wasn’t this career criminal behind bars?” PBA President Patrick Hendry said after his fellow cops gave Wong a rousing round of applause. “Wong wants to get back to work serving the community, but he has a long road to recovery. The justice system is failing us. He [Worthy] should have been locked up after 6 or 7 arrests.”
On March 8, 1988, in the confines of the 103rd Precinct, the same precinct in which he shot Officer Wong, he was cuffed for robbery using a dangerous instrument. In 2008, he was picked up for a narcotic offense, again within the 103rd Precinct.
Over the next 15 years, Worthy had been arrested numerous times for drug, firearm, and serious assault offenses. Most notably, on June 7 of this year, he was arrested in the confines of the 113th Precinct for allegedly breaking into a 54-year-old woman’s home and threatened her with a knife. Sources familiar with the incident believe they were acquaintances.
“You want to call my wife a b*tch again,” he allegedly threatened, causing the victim to fear for her life.
The Queens District Attorney’s office, in responding to a request for comment from amNewYork Metro, stated that prosecutors had sought to have $120,000 bail on two previous felony cases — but were denied each time.
“The court disagreed and released the defendant on the two felony cases. On the same day of the arraignment, Parole also sought to have the defendant remanded pending further parole violation proceedings based on an outstanding warrant that had been previously issued for the defendant for violating the terms of his parole. The court released him on that as well,” a spokesperson for the Queens District Attorney’s office said.
Worthy was arrested several more times leading up to Nov. 13. On that date, according to court documents, cops spotted him on 108th Avenue and 157th Street at around 4:30 p.m., allegedly holding cocaine in his hand before throwing the substance and a pipe to the ground. The suspect allegedly resisted arrest by tensing his body but was ultimately cuffed.
Yet at his arraignment on Nov. 14 before Judge Quynda L. Santacroce, Worthy was released from custody without bail. The Queens District Attorney’s office spokesperson noted that the case itself made him ineligible to be held on bail.
Given Worthy’s criminal history, Mayor Eric Adams — during a press conference at Jamaica Hospital following Tuesday night’s shooting that left Officer Wong wounded and ended Worthy’s life — expressed dismay that the suspect had been on the streets and allowed to put several lives in danger, including that of an officer.
“The criminal justice system is failing New Yorkers and the good people of this city,” Hizzoner said.
The shootout on a busy Queens street came one day after 51-year-old Ramon Rivera went on a stabbing spree across Manhattan, killing three people during an apparent mental health breakdown. This has police, city officials, and some New Yorkers demanding a change in the legal system to keep violent criminals behind bars.