A cop killer who shot an NYPD officer to death over a pair of trendy sunglasses was released from prison Tuesday, devastating the officer’s family, The Post has learned.
Police Officer Juan Andino was killed on June 15, 1984 after he stopped Lee Ernest Walker to question him over the theft of a pair of $140 Cazal specs — worn by rappers such as Run DMC and the Fat Boys — from a display case in the South Bronx store.
The Post reported the shocking murder of Andino, 39, on the front page.
Walker, 67, was released on parole from Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining after spending 40 years behind bars for first-degree murder, according to state Department of Corrections records.
“It just hits you in the gut,” the cop’s brother, Felix Andino, 77, told The Post.
“I believe in capital punishment,” the emotional Andino continued.
“He was a thug. And if you take a life, your life should end. I don’t believe this guy should be living anymore. That’s how I feel.”
Walker is the 43rd cop killer paroled since 2017 when the rules governing how the 16-member state parole board weighs a prisoner’s release were revised, in part because of lobbying by left-wing reformers.
The board gives more weight to an inmate’s age and record while in prison — and less to the savagery of the crime they committed, the source said.
The number of cop killers sprung has the Police Benevolent Association calling for changes.
“It appears that parole board has far too many pro-criminal activists whose intention is to release cop-killers,” PBA President Patrick Hendry said.
“Many of these board members are hold-overs whose terms expired years ago. It’s time to clean house.”
The PBA has subpoenaed the voting records of the board, which are secret, to determine which members are biased against cops.
“Those who display blatant bias must be immediately replaced with new, fair-minded members who care about police officers and crime victims,” Hendry said.
Eleven of the 16 board members are serving expired terms.
Ten of them were appointed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
During the struggle just after noon at Eye Encounter Inc. in the 40 Precinct, the thief managed to pull the officer’s gun out of its holster.
Andino then knocked the gun out of Walker’s hand, but was pushed to the floor and shot twice in the face and head.
“They said that he turned his back on the guy,” Felix recalled the police telling him at the time.
“He trusted people. And I think that’s what happened. He should not have trusted that guy.”
The cop’s older brother, Angel Vasquez, 82, said the killer’s release brought back pain and trauma.
He had a salon in the neighborhood where his brother was a police officer and would regularly get visits from him at lunchtime and even walked the beat with him occasionally.
Angel was doing a woman’s hair the day his brother was shot and an officer came to the salon to take him to the hospital.
“‘You got to come with us,’” he recalled the cop telling him.
“‘Your brother just had an accident.’”
When he arrived at Mount Sinai Hospital in a squad car, then-Mayor Ed Koch and Police Commissioner Benjamin Ward were there.