Justin Murell (left) and Dalsh Veve
Paul Martinka; Richard Harbus
The cop who was struck and dragged by a heartless teenaged Crips member last year “will never recover,” a prosecutor said at the gangbanger’s attempted murder trial.
Hero Det. Dalsh Veve suffered such a severe brain injury when he was dragged while clinging to a stolen car driven for three blocks through East New York in June, 2017, that he still doesn’t know who his wife and little girl are, the prosecutor told a Brooklyn jury in opening statements on Wednesday.
“This case is about two young men,” assistant district attorney Melissa Carvajal told jurors of Veve, 36, and Justin Murrell, who was 15 when he rammed the stolen car into the 10-year veteran.
“One will never walk again, one will never use the bathroom [on his own], one will never speak in full sentences, one doesn’t recognize his wife or 4-year-old daughter,” she said of Veve.
“He’s completely dependent on 24-hour care and will never recover.”
Veve was responding to a noisy house party when Murrell, who is being tried as an adult, rammed the cop as he was fleeing the scene.
Veve clung to the side of the black Honda Civic, and managed to squeeze off two shots at the young thug behind the wheel, the prosecutor said.
The teen was grazed in the face, but still sped at 50 miles per hour through the streets, veering “right and left with the wheel trying to get Officer Veve off,” until the cop was finally flung from the vehicle, she said.
The boy was not acting intentionally when he struck the cop, defense lawyer Fred Pratt told jurors.
But Murrell acted with “methodically and deliberately” all night, the prosecutor countered.
He even walked with his young passengers 20 blocks to Kings County Hospital, she said.
And when he saw cops outside that hospital — where Veve was being prepped for surgery to remove half his skull — he hailed a car service to Brookdale Hospital, she said.
The Brooklyn Supreme Court trial is expected to last another week.