By Rich Bockmann
The NYPD’s internal-affairs investigators were looking into whether or not an off-duty officer stabbed himself last week when he claimed he was attacked during a home invasion at his place in South Jamaica last week, according to police and the New York Post.
Swarms of police responded to Rishi Gobin’s residence near the corner of 170th Street and Liberty Avenue the afternoon of Sept. 12 after the four-year department veteran placed a 911 call claiming he had been attacked during a home invasion, police said.
Gobin, who is assigned to the 42nd Precinct in the Bronx, was taken to Jamaica Hospital, where he was treated for a stab wound to his torso that had not hit any vital organs, police said. For hours uniformed police officers and detectives scoured the neighborhood searching for clues as a police helicopter buzzed by overhead.
Neighbors said Gobin lived in the home with his wife and children and, as rumors of the alleged attack spread, they said they were surprised to hear something like that would happen.
“I spoke to him every now and then. He seemed to be a nice guy,” said Walter Smith, 54, who added that his children play with Gobin’s children, but that he only knew the man in passing. “I’m shocked to hear about that.”
Investigators, however, could not get a clear account of the alleged attack from Gobin. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly visited Gobin in the hospital, but said he could not speak to the officer who was heavily sedated.
A representative for the NYPD later said the department’s internal affairs bureau had opened an investigation into the incident.
The New York Post, citing unnamed sources, reported that video surveillance obtained from the scene did not show anyone fleeing Gobin’s home and that his wounds were consistent with self-inflicted injury.
The NYPD said the investigation was ongoing.
Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
