More than 100 cops applauded a wounded comrade yesterday as he left the hospital – three days after he was shot, police say, by a thug whose officer wife tried to cover up the crime.
“I’m happy to be alive, guys. Thank you,” Officer Andrew Suarez said, flashing a thumbs-up as his family wheeled him out of Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn.
Fingering a string of red rosary beads, and with his left arm in a sling, Suarez, 25, let the officers know he was OK by raising his right thumb.
José Rivera – a 30-year-old ex-con whose wife is a cop – allegedly shot Suarez in the side early Saturday as the victim rode in a car with other undercover officers.
Rivera is accused of opening fire after taunting the officers during a stare-down on a Park Slope street. The officers fired back, riddling Rivera’s car with bullets as he sped off.
Rivera’s eight-months pregnant wife, Officer Jacqueline Melendez-Rivera, 37, was later charged with hindering investigators by trying to stash her husband’s car.
As Suarez was sent home, new details emerged about Rivera’s criminal past, revealing a hair-trigger temper and a penchant for gunplay.
In 1997, Rivera was arrested after shooting a man named Edwin Perez in the chest and leg after an argument on a Brooklyn street. Perez survived, and Rivera pleaded guilty to assault and served five years before being released on parole.
He told the parole-board members that drugs had played a role in his making poor choices and that he would change his life.
After Saturday’s shooting, cops raided the home he shares with his wife and recovered a large amount of marijuana in a bag in the couple’s bedroom.
Meanwhile, his wife apologized for the second day in a row to Suarez.
“I keep him in my prayers all the time that he recovers,” she told NY1. “Nothing was done intentionally.”