Once touted as the poster boy for New York City bail reform, 22-year-old Pedro Hernandez, who already has three open gun cases pending, is now wanted by New York police for allegedly trying to kill two men over a game of three-card monte outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Hernandez is accused of shooting a single shot into an occupied red Mercedes Benz after he was hustled out of cash and a gold chain in the notorious game that literally everyone knows is a con.
According to the New York Post’s police sources, the incident took place at around 5:45 p.m. on August 18, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 50th Street.
When he predictably lost his money and jewelry to the men running the game, Hernandez allegedly fired into the car as the men drove away, then pursued the cons in his BMW into the parking garage of Madison Avenue’s Palace Hotel, where he chased after them on foot.
The Post’s sources say Hernandez retrieved his lost loot after the fleeing men dropped the items. The monte masters were picked up by police on other open warrants, but Hernandez escaped and is now wanted on a warrant of his own.
Ax-swinging madman terrorizing NYC McDonald’s is released without bail https://t.co/5dY5eMxxDy
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) September 19, 2022
Hernandez garnered media attention as a teenager, when he was caught up in a 2015 bodega shooting in the Bronx.
He could have avoided jail time on that charge had he accepted the offered plea deal, but Hernandez maintained he was innocent. Held on $250,000 bail, he began a year on Rikers Island in 2017.
Criminal-justice advocates took up his case, his bail was reduced to $100,000, and the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation bailed him out.
When a key witness refused to cooperate in the case, the charges against Hernandez were ultimately dismissed, and the teen became the perfect example for activists to point to when arguing for the bail reform that is currently causing a spike in violent crimes across the Big Apple.
But the experience didn’t keep Hernandez out of trouble.
In April 2019, he was picked up for his alleged involvement in a Bronx robbery with three accomplices. The victim in that still-pending case required 15 stitches from a gash to his face.
Bail was set at just $15,000, and Hernandez was released. He currently has a lawsuit against New York City and the NYPD, claiming he was targeted and falsely arrested because the cops are picking on him.
Online, many are now seeing Hernandez as a different kind of poster boy: One for ending the bail reform measures that are destroying the city.
“This guy became a rallying cry for bail reform. He’s now wanted for attempted murder,” one user wrote on Twitter. “This experiment with the public’s safety is a disaster and it must end.”
“This would make it the 4th gun case,” tweeted another. “Where’s the fairness for families who are begging for government do something about the open, severe, and escalating gun violence crisis? Kids that just want to safely make it home from school, and parents from work?”
“Almost like if there’s NO Consequences you don’t learn anything,” noted a third. “Who would ever think it…”
This guy became a rallying cry for bail reform.
He's now wanted for attempted murder.
This experiment with the public's safety is a disaster and it must end.https://t.co/IfGlMBVBfZ
— Michael Henry (@michaelhenry4ag) September 25, 2022
This would make it the 4th gun case. Where’s the fairness for families who are begging for government do something about the open, severe, and escalating gun violence crisis? Kids that just want to safely make it home from school, and parents from work?https://t.co/1xWnPjrBdT
— Oswald Feliz (@OswaldFeliz) September 25, 2022
https://twitter.com/Emilio2763/status/1574160637973958656?s=20&t=DZV8ls4x4XYjvZtVGRDA2w
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