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Narcotics Officer Charged With Shooting Up Williamsburg Bar Was Angered By Women’s Rejection, Witnesses Say
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Feb 29, 2020
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Gothamist
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Feb 29, 2020
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Early Friday morning, Ana Yamel was dancing at Horses & Divorces, her local Williamsburg bar, when a stranger approached her on the dance floor. It was close to 3:00 a.m., and the Bedford Avenue hotspot had mostly emptied out.
"All of a sudden this guy is really, really close behind me," recalled Yamel, a 32-year-old film director. "I gave him a look like: what the fuck are you doing?"
Yamel left to sit at the other end of the bar with her two female friends, but noticed the man still staring at her. Moments later, he grabbed an orange out of a basket on the bar, she says, and chucked it in their direction. It smashed a glass in front of them.
"He was clearly very drunk and annoyed that we were ignoring him," said Annie Pearlman, a 31-year-old graphic designer and friend of Yamel. "It’s just another example of many of a man taking a rejection and turning it into violence."
It was that rejection that sent the man — Stephen Abreu, an investigator with the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor — into a violent rage, the women said. When the bartender told him to leave, Abreu punched him in the face, then pulled out a gun and fired two shots inside the Williamsburg bar, according to multiple witnesses and a police report.
Abreu, a 31-year-old Manhattan resident, was arrested and charged with felony attempted murder, reckless endangerment in the first degree, attempted assault with intention to cause physical injury, menacing and a slew of other misdemeanors.
Judge Hilary Gingold freed Abreu on supervised release, despite the fact that felony attempted murder remains a bail-eligible offense under the new laws. The Brooklyn District Attorney's request of $50,000 bail was denied.
A spokesperson for the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor confirmed to Gothamist that Abreu, who has worked as an investigator in the office for four years, was suspended without pay Friday pending an investigation. (Abreu's attorney declined comment for this story.)
"The fact he is a law enforcement officer is horrifying to us and based on the behavior we saw both before and after the gunshots, there is no way this person should be in a position of power over other people," said Pearlman.
It wasn't clear who, if anybody, the alleged gunman was attempting to shoot. According to police, Abreu pulled his weapon from a holster as the bouncer, Austin Barber, wrestled him to the ground. The women said they hid under a table after hearing the first shot, which was followed by a second shot, about fifteen seconds later.
"It was really shocking and terrifying," Pearlman said. "Someone like that should not be allowed to carry a gun." She noted that Abreu entered the bar with a male friend, who fled the scene shortly after the altercation.
Both the women and the bar's owner, Sal Fristensky, said the incident could've turned deadly if not for the quick reflexes of the bouncer.
"As far as I'm concerned, the guy’s an absolute hero," Fristensky told Gothamist. "He completely kept his cool, even as he's wrestling a gun out of this guy's hands and holding him down."
Police said Barber suffered a minor cut to his hand from the gun's ejection port. He returned to work hours later, this time at the door of a neighboring bar, Lucky Dog. He declined to be interviewed, telling Gothamist only: "I was just doing my job."
Abreu is due back in court on March 4th.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated details of Abreu's arraignment. The Brooklyn DA's request of $50,000 bail was denied by the judge, and he was freed on supervised release. The story has been updated.
Tagged
horses and divorces
williamsburg
stephen abreu
office of the special narcotics prosecutor
Jake Offenhartz
Jake Offenhartz is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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