An accused career criminal who was once the darling of bail-reform advocates is now being sought by cops for attempted murder outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral, law-enforcement sources say.
Pedro Hernandez — who still has three other open gun cases against him — is wanted in the Aug. 28 Midtown shooting that stemmed from a game of three-card monte, sources said.
Hernandez, 22, is suspected of firing into an occupied red Mercedes Benz after losing cash and a gold chain in the notoriously rigged sidewalk hustle.
According to police sources, Hernandez was at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 50th Street around 5:45 p.m. Aug. 18 when he lost the dough and jewelry while playing the game.
Irate, he demanded the two men return the items — and fired a single shot into their luxury car when they refused and drove off, sources said. Hernandez allegedly jumped into his black BMW and drove after the other car into the parking garage of the Palace Hotel on Madison Avenue. He ended up chasing the men on foot, sources said.
One of the men dropped Hernandez’s cash and gold chain while running, prompting Hernandez to pick up the items and flee, sources said. The men who were shot at were eventually taken into custody on unrelated open warrants, sources said.
Cops are now pursuing Hernandez on a warrant for the shooting, sources said.
Hernandez is no stranger to the criminal-justice system.
He has the three open gun cases still hanging over him, all offenses dating to 2019, records show. The busts were among the more than 15 arrests he had on his record by that time.
One of his priors involved a 2015 Bronx bodega shooting. Hernandez was offered a plea deal in the case that would have spared him jail time, but he balked, claiming his innocence, and in 2017 began spending a year on Rikers Island while held on $250,000 bail for the crime.
He swiftly became a cause celebrity for criminal-justice advocates and was eventually bailed out of jail on a reduced amount of $100,000 by the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation. The charges against him were eventually dropped after a key witness refused to cooperate.
In April 2019, Hernandez was then arrested and charged in a Bronx robbery with three accomplices, with the victim suffering a gash to his face that required 15 stitches. Hernandez was released after posting $15,000 bail. The case against him is still pending.
Hernandez has insisted that cops are picking on him and were targeting him — and has a pending lawsuit against the city and the NYPD claiming false arrest.
The Bronx Defenders’ Office, which represents Hernandez in his open cases, could not be reached for comment Sunday.
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