The NYPD has finally confirmed that it was indeed one of their own who stood by as a little girl died of an asthma in Brooklyn last Friday.
The cop has been identified as Alfonoso Mendez, 30, who has five years on the job, officials said. He has been suspended and faces departmental charges, police said.
Mendez allegedly offered little help when 11-year-old Briana Ojeda was being rushed to the hospital by her mother, Carmen. Briana died shortly after arriving at Long Island College Hospital.
Briana had an asthma attack in Carroll Park in Carroll Gardens shortly after 5:00 p.m. last Friday. Her mother called 911 but decided to drive her daughter to the hospital herself. To avoid traffic, Ojeda drove her Chevy Tahoe the wrong way down Henry Street. After she was boxed in on the one-way street, she said she asked an NYPD officer for help.
"I stopped and I screamed for him,'Help me please, can you help me? Can you assist me give my daughter mouth to mouth?'" Carmen Ojeda told NBCNewYork on Monday. "He told me he didn't know CPR. The officer's just standing there -- he's telling me I can't leave because I have to wait for the ambulance."
Police department brass spent the last two days trying to determine whether an NYPD officer was even involved. The NYPD said they interviewed every officer at the local precinct -- the 76th -- and none said they were at the scene.
Mendez works in the 84th precinct in Brooklyn Heights, but he reportedly was in the 76th getting gas for his patrol car.
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Police officials have said that all NYPD officers get CPR training so it is unclear why Mendez would have said he didn't know how to perform the procedure.
A funeral service for Briana will be held at 11 a.m. today at St. Francis Xavier Church in Brooklyn.
