Cop 'posted shots of bourbon on Instagram before leaving strip club and
driving wrong way down highway, killing his two friends'
·
Driver Officer Pedro Abad
Jr. posted a photo of three Bourbon shots to his Instagram at midnight on Friday
just hours before the 4:51 a.m. crash between his Honda Civic and a
tractor-trailer
·
The car did not smell like
alcohol but investigators and police have not yet revealed if they
will get a warrant for a blood alcohol test
·
A car carrying three
off-duty New Jersey police officers who had just left a strip club in Staten
Island traveled the wrong way down a New York City highway
·
The car crashed head-on
into a tractor-trailer
·
The dead were identified as
two 28-year-old men, one a Linden, New Jersey, police officer named Frank
Viggiano who sat in the rear right seat and the other a civilian, officials
said
·
The 27-year-old driver and
a 23-year-old passenger, also Linden police officers, were listed in critical
condition at hospitals on Staten Island
·
On February 17, Abad
Jr. posted about 'dropping cocaine in the snow' on his Twitter account
A New Jersey cop who drove a car the wrong way down a New York City highway and got into a crash that killed two of his friends and left him critically injured may have been drinking bourbon at a strip club hours before the tragic collision.
Driver Officer Pedro Abad Jr. posted a photo of three Bourbon shots to his Instagram at midnight on Friday just hours before the 4:51 a.m. crash between his Honda Civic and a tractor-trailer, reports the New York Daily News.
No alcohol was found inside the vehicle but Adad Jr's Instagram photo of the alcohol shots with the caption that read, 'Jack Daniels Fire on the house' may offer more insight on the moments that lead up to the crash.
Was he drinking?: Driver Officer Pedro Abad Jr. (left) posted a photo of three Bourbon shots (right) to his Instagram at midnight on Friday just hours before the 4:51 a.m. crash between his Honda Civic and a tractor-trailer that killed two of his friends
Survivor: Officer Pedro Abad Jr., pictured in full uniform, may have drunkenly driven his friends to their death late on Friday after they left the Staten Island strip club called Curves and after he posted a photo of three shots of Bourbon just hours before
Horrific crash: The car was wrong way and off-duty officers with the Linden, New Jersey, police department, crashed into the truck, killing one officer and another person and leaving two other officers critically injured
The caption continued, 'I’m not allowed to make any tags, but my toast was as follows; "The 3 of us, are decent people. There’s a decent woman out there for each of us. Sure it’s cool to be single every now and then, but I don’t give a damn what ANYONE says. At the end of the day, I want a family. I want to settle down. We all do. So here’s to finding that which we all hope for.'
The car carrying three off-duty New Jersey cops who had just left a strip club traveled the wrong way down a New York City highway and crashed head-on into a tractor-trailer early on Friday, killing an officer and a civilian and critically injuring two other policemen.
The dead were identified as two 28-year-old men, one a Linden, New Jersey, police officer named Frank Viggiano who sat in the rear right seat and the other a civilian named Joseph Rodriguez, officials said.
Both were passengers in the car when it crashed on Staten Island. The 27-year-old driver Pedro Abad Jr. and a 23-year-old passenger Patrick Kudlac, also Linden police officers, are in a critical condition in the hospital, authorities said.
Abad Jr. is said to have undergone brain surgery.
The truck driver suffered injuries that weren't believed to be life-threatening.
Is this meant to be a joke?: Officer Pedro Abad Jr. posted about cocaine on his Twitter back on February 17 and while he is meant to be enforcing the law may be guilty of breaking it
Expressive: Officer Pedro Abad Jr.'s Instagram is filled with selfies of him making funny faces in uniform and in one photograph he's seen holding a mysterious drink in a jar
The wreckage: An employee of the NYPD Collision Investigation Squad sifts through the rummage after the crash on Friday that killed two
A wrong curve: The crash occurred after undercover New Jersey cops left this Staten Island strip club and then drove the wrong way on a New York City highway and collided into another car
The New York Post reports that the officers did not smell of booze at the hospital but but investigators will likely request a warrant to administer a blood-alcohol test to see if he was intoxicated.
Adad Jr. was not just a fan of posting photos of booze on social media. On February 17, Adad Jr. posted about drugs on Twitter, 'You think you have problems? I just dropped my cocaine in the snow... #fuck #fml #snow #winter #nj #drugs #drugsarebadmmkay.'
New York Police Department spokeswoman Deputy Chief Kim Royster said one tractor-trailer swerved out of the way of the car on the West Shore Expressway on Staten Island, but a second didn't have enough time to veer away before the crash.
She said the driver of the tractor-trailer passed a breathalyzer test and does not appear to be at fault.
Harrowing images of the crash show the sedan reduced to a heaping pile of metal with the front end flattened and its roof completely shaved off.
The door of the truck is ripped in half and a small flame burns beneath its decimated front wheels.
Royster said police are going to review video footage and interview patrons and employees of Curves strip club.
'It appears they may have been coming from some kind of party,' she said.
'At this point there is no indication of alcohol in the car. ...There was no smell of alcohol.'
She said the car's black box will help investigators determine how fast they were traveling.
Images of the crash scene show the truck and car smashed against the center guardrail and the car ravaged.
'Linden is a very small town. Everybody knows everybody,' Linden Mayor Derek Armstead told told WCBS radio.
The aftermath: The totaled car was traveling in the wrong direction on the southbound West Shore Expressway at about 5 a.m. when the crash occurred in Staten Island, New York City on Friday
Destroyed: This Honda Civic was ravished after Friday's crash in Staten Island that killed two men and injured two
others
One of their own: Linden, New Jersey police department cars are parked near the emergency room exit of the Staten Island University Medical Center on Friday after a crash involving their off-duty officers
'The officers involved are very proactive in our community, and it is just a sad day in Linden, it really is.'
Linden police Capt. James Sarnicki said all three officers were relatively new to the force. The officers' names weren't being released until their families could be notified.
He said that Armstead and police Chief James Schulhafer were heading to the two Staten Island hospitals where the surviving officers were taken and that a chaplain and grief counselors are at police headquarters.
In his 37 years working for the department, Sarnicki said, he couldn't remember any officers being killed in the blue-collar refinery town just across the water from Staten Island.
'People are in a somber mood. I could see some officers with tears in their eyes. It is an emotional day for all of us. Like I said, we are a family and we're all hurt by this,' he said.
Mourning: From left, Linden Police Officers Ian Conk and Thomas Zajak attend a news conference at City Hall in Linden, New Jersey on Friday following the death of one of their colleagues
Public issue: Linden Mayor Derek Armstead talks during a news conference surrounded by police officers at City Hall in Linden, New Jersey on Friday after the horrific crash in Staten Island
Wreckage: New York City Police Department officers look at debris from one of the two cars involved in a fatal Staten Island crash in New York on march 20 left behind from a the march 18 crash
'It's tragic for people to lose their lives at such an early age, whatever the reason.'
Flags in front of Linden City Hall, which are part of a war memorial surrounded by smaller American flags, were lowered to half-staff Friday morning.
'This is devastating, devastating,' said Reese Lospinoso, 57, a bartender who grew up in Linden and has lived here most of his life.
'The police in Linden are looked at very, very highly. They're very well-respected in our town.'
Armstead said more information would be released later on Friday.
Memorial bunting adorns the entrance to City Hall in Linden, New Jersey on Friday after three off duty Linden New Jersey police officers were involved in a wrong-way crash on Staten Island early on Friday morning
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