Bushwick Cops Threw Lit Firecracker At Another Officer: Report

BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN — A Bushwick cop who was given a summons quota, then attacked with a firecracker by fellow officers when he tried to meet it, is suing the NYPD for $5 million, according to a Daily News report.

Officer Josue Kavanagh, of the 83rd Precinct, had a lit firecracker thrown at him after fellow cops discovered he’d issued summons to people carrying cards from the police’s labor union, the Daily News reported.

But Kavanagh said he was only trying to meet his supervisor’s eight-summons mandate, which contradicts NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill’s directive to precincts to stop setting quotas.

The firecracker exploded near Kavanagh, 35, in the precinct locker room on Dec. 31, and when Kavanagh turned he saw one officer filming him and another just standing there, he told the Daily News.

“He tossed it at me,” Kavanagh said. “It didn’t just accidentally land next to me.”

This was the culmination of months of harassment from the precinct Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association reps and other officers, who were upset that Kavanagh issued to summons to drivers with PBA courtesy cards, according to the Daily News.

The Bushwick cop decided to issue summons to PBA card-holders because he believed people were forging fake cards and he felt obligated to meet his supervisors' eight-summons quota, he said.

Kavanagh's colleagues retaliated by refusing him his own PBA cards and threatening to give his home address to the drivers he had ticketed, according to the Daily News.

Kavanagh is now seeking $5 million after the explosion, which left him suffering with migraines and ringing in in the ears, the Daily News reported.

The NYPD press office declined to comment and Kavanagh’s attorney did not immediately respond to Patch’s request for more information.

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