The Westchester cop who killed a man in a violent Bronx struggle Tuesday was being choked in the moments before he shot the man dead, the NYPD’s top cop said Wednesday.
NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said two witnesses told cops they saw Wardell Johnson, 43, clutching the neck of the Pelham Manor cop as the men wrestled in a back yard in the Edenwalk section Tuesday night.
Kelly said one of the witnesses then saw Johnson reaching for the cop’s gun before the officer fired two rounds, hitting him once in the chest.
Johnson, a Bronx mechanic with a long criminal history, died at the scene.
The unidentified Pelham Manor cop tried to pull Johnson over when he spotted him riding an all-terrain vehicle on a sidewalk along Boston Road in Pelham Manor about 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Johnson, who had just bought the four-wheeler for his son, fled from the cop until the yellow ATV ran out of gas on Baychester Ave. in the Bronx. He then ran into a backyard on Edson Ave.
During the initial struggle, Johnson snatched the cop’s radio and tossed it onto the roof of a neighboring one-story garage, police sources said.
Kelly said NYPD cops were not involved in the incident, though the department is investigating. He said Johnson was arrested more than 30 times in the 47th Precinct in the Bronx, where the shooting occurred.
The Pelham Manor police chief did not return telephone messages Wednesday.
Johnson’s death stunned his wife, Jasmine Williams, who said they were married in April after having dated for a decade.
“I can’t believe that this is happening. They just took my soul mate,” Williams, 39, told the Daily News outsideher Bronx home Wednesday.
“We were planning on moving down south together,” she added. “Now our dreams are shattered.”