By Sasha Gonzales
BAYCHESTER – A Florida-based rapper living under a fake identity was arrested in the 1999 shooting of a NYPD narcotics cop in the Bronx Friday, police said.
Lester Pearson, 43, was captured by U.S. Marshals in Jacksonville twenty years after he allegedly shot Officer Vincent Ling during a chaotic shootout between the men on East Gun Hill Road in Baychester, officials said. Pearson had been living with his girlfriend and kids under the name Michael Davis, officials said.
Ling, who was working undercover in 1999, had been involved in a longstanding personal beef with Pearson stemming from Pearson having once dated Ling’s sister, authorities said.
After initially announcing Sunday that Ling was killed in the shootout, the NYPD on Monday said he is still alive.
Pearson, who skipped bail in the cop shooting case after turning himself in in 2000, was found with a fake ID for his new identity, as well as a handgun, authorities said. He is also known by his stage name, “Monsta Kodi,” and boasts tens of thousands of social media followers.
In a tweet announcing Pearson’s arrest, NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill wrote: “Law enforcement professionals demonstrate time & again that we are patient & that our collaborative forces have a very long reach.”
Authorities said they expect to extradite Pearson from Florida to New York in the coming weeks.