NYPD commanders knew cop busted in random New Jersey shooting was on a downward spiral

NYPD Officer Hieu Tran’s downward spiral into depression and heavy drinking began long before he inexplicably shot and paralyzed a young businessman last May during a random traffic encounter on a road in South Jersey, according to sources and court records reviewed by the News.

Tran, 27, now sits accused in a cell in the Camden County, N.J. jail, while the victim of the shooting, Kishan Patel, 31, undergoes day after day of grueling rehab at a special hospital 1,500 miles away in Houston in an effort to restore basic functions.

On June 17, Tran gave a six-hour interview to New Jersey psychiatrist Michael Wiltsey in which he disclosed his NYPD superiors were aware of his problems both at the 28th Precinct in Harlem and after he was transferred into a pressure-packed role managing social media for the department’s press office, according to a court transcript and sources.

But they did not take his firearms, or sideline him to get treatment.

At the height of the student protests over the war in Gaza last April, Tran was part of the NYPD’s social media team and often working double and triple tours, including a 31-hour stretch, without a day off and medicating with alcohol, sources familiar with the report said.

“My boss needs me. He picked me out. I don’t want to let him down,” Tran told relatives, according to the sources.

He described his role to Wiltsey as “social media assistant” to the press office’s Deputy Commissioner, who at the time was Tarik Sheppard, also his former commander at the 28th Precinct, the sources said.

At the time, Sheppard, and other police brass were using social media to aggressively defend the NYPD’s tactics at those protests, including posting controversial hype videos of operations at Columbia University and City College.

But Tran’s drinking had become problematic even before he became a cop in 2021 as his mother died of cancer, sources familiar with Tran’s conversation with Wiltsey said. It got worse as he worked at the Harlem precinct under Sheppard and worse still after he was transferred to the press office in September, 2023.

At several points, according to the sources, Tran turned to an unidentified “captain,” who merely offered kindly advice. “Don’t cope with booze or drugs,” the captain told Tran. “Promise me you will lay off the booze.”

“His commanding officer, New York PD, recognized he had an alcoholic abuse problem, told him to get treatment for it, hasn’t done it,” said New Jersey Judge Michael Taylor, citing Wiltsey’s report, at his June 25 detention hearing.

The disclosures raise questions over whether it was enough to merely counsel Tran. NYPD commanders have the power in such instances to remove an officer’s firearms and direct them to be assessed for possible inpatient treatment, said three current and former chiefs consulted by The News.

“They know about his problems and he’s not suspended or required to surrender his firearms,” said Joseph Marrone, the Patels’ lawyer in a negligence lawsuit against the city. “But it’s not just about this officer.  This is an extension of a toxic culture in the department of cops who aren’t properly trained and aren’t properly reprimanded.”

A grueling vigil

Meanwhile, Kishan Patel’s parents hold a daily vigil for their son at Tirr Memorial Hospital in Houston. Manjina and Himanshu Patel walk each morning from their rented room to his bedside and stay with him through 12-hour days.

“It is so mentally tiring. Every day we are working through this with him,” Manjina, 67, said. “It’s heartbreaking. We wash his face. We make sure he doesn’t vomit. And every day, we ask ourselves why did this happen.”

Kishan was engaged and minutes from home May 17 in South Jersey’s Voorhees Township when Tran, who was off-duty, pulled up alongside his pickup truck and opened fire with his service weapon.

A 9-mm bullet entered behind Kishan’s right ear at the junction of his brain and spine and rendered him a quadraplegic. Tran then ran a red light and fled home to Yonkers.

Eight months later, Kishan can’t yet speak or feed himself, his family says. He will require skilled nursing care for the rest of his life. In just eight months, his medical bills have already topped $1 million.

A good day is measured in tiny moments, his mom says, and just as often there are setbacks.

“He has minimal non-verbal communication,” said brother-in-law Daniel Gaughan, 34. “It’s just day-to-day. It’s going to be a long haul.”

At the time he was shot, Kishan was running the two liquor stores his parents own in Camden and Williamstown, N.J. But where his business talent really shined was what he did with their third business – a pool supply company he had taken online and where he had rapidly increased sales.

Bob Almond, 68, a successful entrepreneur and family friend, said he helped mentor Kishan.

“I saw such potential in this young man, he was like a sponge,” Almond, retired and living in Florida, told The News. “He would have multiplied his parents’ success by 10 fold at minimum.”

That responsibility has now fallen on Kishan’s sister Krishna, 30.

“Our mom and dad were getting ready to retire, and Kishan was handling the businesses,” Krishna said. “This man should never have had a gun in the first place.”

Despair, decline

Tran became a cop in February 2021, inspired, he said, by watching police officers tend to his mother when she was robbed, the sources said. When his mom’s cancer diagnosis grew dire, Tran managed the sadness with alcohol, the sources said. She died in 2020.

At the Harlem precinct, he drank heavily after work to ease the stress from the deaths, assaults and blood he witnessed on the job, the sources said.

“I should have sought therapy .. the load was too much to bear,” Tran told Wiltsey, the sources said. “I was crying, breaking down at work.”

Tran’s problems followed him when he was transferred to DCPI and the stress accelerated in his social media role. A long day often ended at a bar in Times Square.

“The next thing I know, I’m at the bar drinking, but also managing my boss’ schedule and his social media,” he told Wiltsey, the sources said.

Two retired cops formerly assigned to DCPI told The News it was unusual for an officer with less than three years on the job to make it to that high profile unit, much less be given such a pressure-packed role.

In April, as the protests dominated national news, Tran had another setback – he and his partner  broke up. He was devastated, the sources said. Tran took some time off, but kept drinking after he returned.

“One drink became I would wake up the next day and didn’t know how I got home,” he told Wiltsey, the sources said.

Sometimes, after such a bender, he would obsessively check his car and search the internet for car crashes, the sources said.

Tran’s relatives noticed his downward spiral, the sources said. At one point, he posted a photo of his feet on a ledge near the ocean.

On the day of the shooting, Tran went to a wedding in Sicklerville, N.J. 100 miles from the city and drank heavily, he told Wiltsey, according to the sources. He claimed he later woke up in bed, with no memory of the shooting.

Prosecutors said Tran went to work as if nothing happened and made sure to refill the magazine of his pistol to replace the bullets he had fired. He also followed news reports of the incident, the sources said.

Over the next three weeks, detectives in Jersey examined surveillance video and cell data to trace Tran’s white Lexus to a gas station where he used his credit card to buy gas. He was arrested June 6, records show.

An NYPD spokesman did not reply to emails from The News. Sheppard, who was replaced as spokesman in November by new commissioner Jessica Tisch, also did not reply to a request for comment.

Nicholas Paolucci, a Law Department spokesman, declined comment on the pending case.

Tran remains on suspension from the NYPD while his case is pending. He is now represented by prominent New Jersey lawyer Robin Lord, who touts on her website that a prosecutor once told her to “Go f— yourself.”

“Mr. Tran’s defense will be well known in due time. The case is not what it seems,” Lord told The News Saturday, declining further comment.

Wiltsey concluded Tran was suffering from acute depression, a serious drinking problem and post-traumatic stress, according to statements in the detention hearing..

“It seems that he was a powder keg or a time bomb waiting to go off,” said prosecutor Peter Gallagher at the detention hearing, a transcript shows.

As the criminal case proceeds in Camden County, the Patels have a hearing Tuesday in their lawsuit in Manhattan federal court.