By Murray Weiss, Austin Fenner and Jamie Schram
New York Post
NEW YORK — A boozed-up NYPD officer fatally mowed down a Brooklyn woman yesterday, and his passengers - including a fellow off-duty cop - fled the scene as the victim lay dying, police and law-enforcement sources said.
Officer Andrew Kelly, 30, assigned to the 68th Precinct in Bay Ridge, was found reeking of alcohol and with slurred speech and bloodshot eyes after his Jeep struck 33-year-old Vionique Valnord, the daughter of a minister, as she left a wedding at around 12:41 a.m. in Flatlands, authorities said.
Sources said he had been drinking beer for more than two hours. A plastic beer cup was spotted near his seat after the accident.
Kelly’s four passengers - including off-duty Officer Michael Downs of the 70th Precinct in Brooklyn and at least two others connected in some way with the NYPD - left the scene, sources said. Kelly stayed and tried to help the victim.
One of the passengers told investigators that earlier in the evening, Kelly, a seven-year NYPD veteran and married father of two, had been drinking with a male pal at a Flatlands bar before heading to a buddy’s house nearby to watch the Notre Dame football game on TV.
He and his friend wanted to save money by drinking back at the house, the source said. That’s where Downs met up with them, the source added.
After the game, the group piled into Kelly’s dark-blue Jeep Cherokee and started back to the bar, sources said.
The Jeep was heading west on Avenue N at East 56th Street when it struck Valnord, who had stepped out into the street about 100 feet east of the crosswalk, police said.
Valnord had just left the wedding of two church members at the nearby American Legion hall, where her father officiated at the ceremony. She was trying to hail a cab with her 5-year-old goddaughter when she was hit, cops and friends said.
Witnesses said Valnord, a teetotaler studying to be a missionary, had been holding the child’s hand but left her on the sidewalk before venturing into the street.
“I saw [Valnord’s] body in the air, flipping and twisting, and I heard it hit the ground,” said Richard Augustin, 18, who also attended the wedding.
Witnesses said several people - including Kelly - rushed to perform CPR.
“She was unconscious, and she wasn’t breathing, either. [Kelly] got out of the car, and he was trying to resuscitate her. He got her breathing again by the time the ambulance got here,” said one local resident.
Valnord died at Brookdale Hospital.
Her father, pastor of the Church of God, on Rogers Avenue in Crown Heights, told his parishioners yesterday, “When it’s time for God to take you, you must go. God decides whether you live or die.”
But when informed of the officer who allegedly had high-tailed it from the scene, the minister was at a loss. “Oh, my God,” he said. “Oh, my God. Somebody has to do something about this.”
A prosecutor at Brooklyn Criminal Court last night said, “The sergeant on the scene described [Kelly] as having red, watery, eyes, slurred speech and the smell of alcohol on his breath.
“There’s additional evidence found of alcoholic beverages inside the vehicle,” the prosecutor said.
The officer refused to take a Breathalyzer test at the scene, so investigators obtained a warrant and had his blood drawn at Kings County Hospital, cops said.
Kelly, who was wearing a Yankee jacket and cap, was charged with DWI and vehicular manslaughter and suspended without pay. He was released on a $200,000 bond.
Kelly’s lawyer didn’t dispute that alcohol was in the car but added, “It may not have belonged to the defendant.” He added that his client’s blood-test results were not entered into evidence yet “because they would be favorable [to him].”
The lawyer also cited bad weather conditions.
“It was a dark and dreary night. [There] was heavy rain. The streets were dark,” the lawyer said.
Downs, who has been with the NYPD for 41/2 years and who married only last month, also has been suspended, sources said.
He is claiming that an investigator at the scene told him he was clear to leave and that he should head to his station house and remain there, police sources said.
But NYPD brass were so angry over his leaving that they at first threatened to try to charge him criminally, sources said.
Another source said Downs didn’t alert his superiors until he showed up at work at 8 a.m. yesterday.
On his Facebook page, Downs lists the slogan: “DRINK UP LIFE IS TOO SHORT!!!” and cites his favorite music as “any music that makes me drink. Lol.”
As for Kelly, his neighbor, Felix Aponte, called him “a great guy, always willing to help you. I’m stunned by this.”
Meanwhile, Valnord’s friends mourned her as “someone with a beautiful singing voice.”
She worked as a security guard in Manhattan.
Copyright 2009 New York Post