Caught on video: Off-duty NYPD officer pulls gun during apparent road rage incident
SELDEN, N.Y. - A Long Island family is calling their neighbor, who's an NYPD officer, a vigilante following a road rage incident.
They say he pulled a gun on them on the quiet street they share.
As CBS2's Jennifer McLogan reports, officers arrested and charged the now-suspended NYPD cop in a wild road rage incident after he pulled a gun on his neighbor, who wants to remain unidentified.
"I thought I was going to die, right here on my porch. I'm still shaken," the man said.
A Selden couple say they returned home to find NYPD Officer Douglas Debonet having a tantrum on their front porch, following a road rage incident with their college student son.
The heated exchange was caught on video.
Investigators say the 24-year-old Stony Brook student was driving down the street he lives on. His neighbor, the off-duty officer, was coming in the opposite direction and forced to move over and slow down. Words were exchanged.
"Instead of retreating, the gentleman said if I catch you on my block again, I'm going to f-ing kill you," the son's father said.
The son phoned his parents to say their neighbor was following him. They told him to drive to the precinct. On the way, at a red light, Debonet allegedly exited his car enraged and punched out the student's rearview mirror, and drove off.
Hours later, Debonet confronted them on their porch. It was then the family learned their neighbor was a cop.
The family called 911, and Debonet was arrested for menacing with a weapon and criminal mischief and has been suspended without pay from the NYPD.
The victim is an accountant and says that's why he had a pen in his pocket and waved it. Debonet, in the video, said that was why he pulled out his gun.
The victims say they are one of two families of color on the street, and claim to feel ostracized since Debonet moved in. The family says they believe the incident could be racially motivated.
CBS2 has reached out to the PBA, Debonet, both police forces and the DA for comment.
The cop was issued a stay away order, but the family calls the charges a slap on the wrist.
