A 30-year-old perp fatally shot after pulling a gun on an off-duty NYPD cop in a botched robbery was an illegal migrant who had been involved in three other violent thefts just hours earlier, sources told The Post.
Lahione Soto, of the Dominican Republic, died after he was shot by the cop outside a residential building at West 173rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Washington Heights late Sunday.
Soto, who had crossed the US border in El Paso, Texas in June last year, was one of two moped-riding perps who ambushed the off-duty officer, the sources said.
The migrant and his alleged accomplice, who was still on the run as of early Monday, are accused of carrying out three other gunpoint robberies in the lead up to the fatal encounter with the cop.
They allegedly robbed multiple victims of their jewelry and stole a moped from one person over a 20-minute stretch, the sources said.
Sources said the duo then approached the off-duty cop outside the apartment block just before 9:50 p.m., asking “Does Steve live here?”
Soto then whipped out his gun, prompting the cop to draw his own weapon and fire off three rounds.
Cops performed CPR on the migrant but he was later pronounced dead in the hospital, police said.
Meanwhile, his alleged accomplice fled the scene on his moped.
The off-duty cop was treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
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