A suspended New York City police detective has been sentenced for pulling out his gun and pointing it at three teenagers during a road-rage encounter, closing out a case that grew out of an off-duty confrontation on a Westchester County road. The sentence followed a guilty verdict against the officer.
Prosecutors identified the detective as 37-year-old John O'Connell of Patterson. A judge sentenced him to a one-year conditional discharge for what happened during the encounter, which took place in the town of Somers.
According to prosecutors, the episode unfolded last August when O'Connell was off duty. They said he pulled alongside a car that was carrying three 16-year-olds and pointed his loaded service weapon at them, turning an ordinary drive into a frightening confrontation for the young people in the other vehicle.
O'Connell was found guilty of menacing and of endangering the welfare of a child. The charges reflected both the threat posed by pointing the loaded weapon and the fact that the people on the receiving end were teenagers.
As part of the outcome, orders of protection were issued for each of the three victims. The protective orders were meant to shield the teenagers who had been confronted during the road-rage incident.
The case drew attention because it involved an off-duty law enforcement officer using his service weapon during a dispute on the road. Road-rage encounters can escalate quickly, and prosecutors treated the pointing of a loaded firearm at teenagers as a serious matter.
O'Connell had been suspended from the NYPD in connection with the case. With the sentencing, the criminal proceedings against the detective reached their conclusion, leaving the conditional discharge and the orders of protection as the formal result of the road-rage confrontation in Somers.