The father of an off-duty cop mercilessly beaten by thugs in a Bronx White Castle restaurant – and then shot dead by a fellow officer when he brandished his weapon outside – yesterday defended his son, saying he was just a guy trying to “order a hamburger.” In a discovery hearing in The Bronx, defense attorneys maintained that the full surveillance video pulled from the eatery that night will show the drunken officer threatened the men by pulling up his shirt to reveal his service revolver.
But Police Officer Eric Hernandez’s dad, Efrain Hernandez, said his son’s intoxication had no bearing on what happened when the mob attacked him on Jan. 28.
It could’ve happened to anyone, he said.
“If these gentleman would’ve just let him order the hamburger and walk out, I wouldn’t be here,” he said outside Bronx Supreme Court with a throng of police officers behind him.
“My son would be alive. It’s as simple as that.”