The NYPD is investigating why officers only gave a summons to a four-time ex-con after he crashed a car into a lower Manhattan construction site, after which he is accused of going on a wild Queens carjacking spree that sparked the friendly-fire shooting of a detective, police sources said.
The NYPD is reviewing whether or not the officers should have arrested the suspect, Kevin Dubuisson, after he crashed the car at Murray and West Sts. last Thursday night.
The vehicle turned out to be stolen, the second one police said he had stolen that night, though at the time that information had not been entered into the NYPD database that officers can access.
But Dubuisson, 28, also did not have any documents to prove the card was his, sources said.
The NYPD refused to answer multiple questions about the response, including whether the officers ran the car’s license plate and questioned Dubuisson about who owned the vehicle.
Police did say Dubuisson was released with a summons, though a more thorough investigation might have resulted in an arrest, for which he would likely have been behind bars for up to 24 hours, sources said.
Instead, Dubuisson the next morning allegedly carjacked an Uber driver on the service road of the Whitestone Expressway, in Whitestone.
Uniformed patrol officers responded to the scene, as did plainclothes narcotics officers who were heading back to their office after executing a search warrant in an unrelated case.
During the confrontation, Det. Corey Fisher was shot in the arm and leg. He was released from Jamaica Medical Center on Monday and is recovering.
The suspect, who was not injured, was charged with robbery, assault and menacing.
Police and prosecutors said that moments before carjacking the Uber driver, he had attempted two carjackings nearby, then injured an elderly woman when he backed into her car after beating the Uber driver with a tire iron and taking his vehicle.
Police have still not said why the officers opened fire and whether the suspect had the tire iron in his hand at the time.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch at a press conference after the shooting railed against New York’s 2020 criminal justice reforms, noting that when Dubuisson pleaded guilty in a 2023 robbery case, his prior felonies should have resulted in more than the sentence he received — serving 15 months before his parole this March.
She didn’t elaborate on how the sentence might have been harsher before 2020 — but she pointed out that Dubuisson’s initial offense the day before his wild carjacking spree began was when cops caught him evading paying his subway fare in Manhattan.
Before 2020, for fare evasion, he would have gone through the system because of his felony convictions. Instead, he was released, then stole his first car a short time later.