‘He’s just like a baby now’

A man shot and paralyzed by a “ticking time bomb” NYPD officer in an apparent road rage will need around-the-clock care for the rest of his life after the disturbing attack, a new lawsuit claims.

Kishan Patel, 30, was driving home from work at his family’s liquor store in New Jersey at around 11 pm on May 17 when off-duty NYPD officer Hieu Tran pulled up alongside him at a red light and shot at him several times with his NYPD-issued sidearm before driving off and showing up to work at NYPD headquarters the next day, according to the suit.

Tran was arrested and charged with attempted murder nearly three weeks later, while Patel was left paralyzed, has minimal brain function and is currently in what’s known as a “waking coma,” said the lawsuit, filed against the officer, the city and Mayor Eric Adams.

“He’s just like a baby now,” said Patel’s mother, Manjina Patel, 55, at an emotional Wednesday press conference. Manjina Patel said she and her husband spend six hours a day caring for their only son, who was due to be married just two months after his shooting.

Before the shooting, the couple were getting ready to retire and hand the shop over to their son. Now, they said they may have to close up the liquor store and the two other businesses they run because of their son’s health care needs.

“For Kishan we will do anything,” she said.

The suit claims that the NYPD and the city were deliberately “indifferent” to the “troubled” officer’s long standing mental health and substance abuse issues, which were known to officials well-before the shooting, yet took no action except to transfer him to a desk job.

“The department knew there was something wrong with this person,” said Patel’s father, Himanshu Patel, 56.

“That’s what we don’t understand … They knew, and they still gave him a gun.” Manjina added.

One of the bullets allegedly hit Kishan Patel’s skull, just behind his right ear, leaving him a quadriplegic who requires “24/7 skilled nursing care for the rest of his life,” his family said.

“Although Officer Tran pulled the trigger, longstanding policies, procedures and practices of the City and the NYPD proximately caused the injuries to Kishan Patrel,” the lawsuit states.

Kishan Patel’s injuries include an anoxic brain injury and damage to his craniocervical junction — where the brain meets the spine — leaving him with limited brain function. His lawyers said he is being transferred to a specialized facility in Texas, at a price of $4,000 per day, and the family plans to travel back-and-forth from New Jersey during his treatment, which they said will be a significant financial strain.

The suit calls Tran, 27, a “ticking timebomb,” claiming that the NYPD knew that the rookie cop “had significant mental health challenges with longstanding alcoholism,” yet did little to safeguard against disaster.

Despite transferring the “problem” cop after three years at a Harlem precinct to the department’s public information office, the suit claims.

His commanding officer had told the allegedly troubled officer to get treatment for his “alcohol abuse problem,” according to a court transcript, but police officials never asked him to surrender his 9mm pistol to prevent him from “using it to commit acts of violence and mayhem.”

Local police said Tran, who was returning from a wedding at the time of the violent confrontation, sped off — leaving Patel bleeding out in his car, which then drifted into another vehicle, seriously injuring the driver.

The suspect then calmly stopped at a nearby gas station to refuel his SUV before driving back to his home in Yonkers, officials said. 

He continued to report to his job at NYPD headquarters until he was arrested while at work nearly three weeks later and charged with attempted murder, the suit states.

Investigators later found that Tran, who said he had no recollection of the events due to his drinking, had reloaded his gun’s magazine to replace the three bullets he shot at Patel and even searched the web on his phone for any news stories about the shooting, said Patel’s attorney Joseph M. Marrone.

“This psychotic officer drove up to Kishan, fired three shots into his vehicle and he drove off like nothing happened,” Marrone said. 

Patel’s mother said that her son was “full of life,” and that while her focus is now on giving her son the best possible care, she wants accountability.

“His punishment should be severe so it’ll teach somebody else a lesson not to do something like that …not give him a little time and say OK – no it should be severe,” Manjina said.

“We’re holding the NYPD and the city of New York and Mayor Adams accountable for what happened to Kishan,” said Patel’s father, Himanshu. “Kishan’s life will be forever ruined.”

The city’s law department and the NYPD both declined to comment.