The career criminal who was killed in a shootout with a wounded hero cop was on the streets because a Queens judge cut him loose three months ago — even after prosecutors pushed to lock him up.
Gary Worthy, 57, was already on lifetime parole after serving two sints in state prison when he went before Queens Criminal Court Judge Edward Daniels on Aug. 27 on a pair of new criminal cases for assault and burglary, records reviewed by The Post reveal.
The Queens District Attorney’s Office asked that Worthy be held on $60,000 bail “based on the nature of the offenses and the criminal record of the accused,” a spokesperson for DA Melinda Katz said Wednesday. Worthy’s parole officer asked that he be held without bail at the same hearing.
But Daniels instead released Worthy without bail, and he still remained free after he was arrested again last week on drug possession and resisting arrest charges, the records show.
On Tuesday night, police said a gun-wielding Worthy tried to rob a Jamaica bodega and a smoke shop before he was confronted by cops, wounding one of the officers before being shot dead.
“He’s been arrested numerous times while on parole,” one law enforcement source told The Post. “But apparently that’s not enough to put him back in. If he hadn’t died I’m sure his [parole officer] would be upset he missed his appointment.
“We interact with criminals every day and there is an unspoken comfort in knowing there’s someone out there tracking them, holding them accountable. But now after this it really shows we’re on our own.”
The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, which oversees the parole system, initiated proceedings to lock Worthy up after he was charged in August, but Daniels ordered the ex-con released, a spokesperson for the agency said in an email Wednesday.
Under the law, the department has 24 hours to issue a warrant to bring a case before a judge, but the spokesperson noted that “the judge has the sole authority to make the decision whether to remand or release on recognizance.”
According to a transcript of the Aug. 27 court proceedings, Worthy’s parole officer said the ex-con had not shown up for a required meeting with him since April, despite occasionally calling in.
In two of the cases against him Worthy allegedly pulled knives on his brother and a friend in separate incidents, telling one, “I will kill you and I will shoot you,” the transcript shows.
In the second case, he warned, “I will cut you and throw you off the balcony.”
At one point both the prosecutor and Worthy’s Legal Aid attorney said he did not have access to a gun.
“The court finds that in this case release does not present a substantial risk of failing to appear at a preliminary or final [parole] revocation hearing and that non-monetary conditions would be the least-restrictive means to secure his attendance at those proceedings,” the judge said.
Daniels then ordered Worthy released but was required to call his parole officer the next morning.
In an email Wednesday, a spokesman for the state Office of Court Administration, which oversees the judicial system, said the agency does not comment on bail decisions, “except to say that in cases like this in New York judges have discretion… based solely on an individualized assessment of a defendant’s risk of flight.”
Worthy’s criminal history dates to 1994, when he was sentenced to 16 years in state prison on a manslaughter conviction — after he pleaded it down from a murder charge.
He was released in 2008, only to be arrested again on a gun charge the following year. He was hit with a prison sentence of two to four years and was released in 2021 with lifetime parole, records show.
He remained on the loose despite seven more arrests, including three pending Queens cases for assault, burglary and criminal drug possession, the records show.
In the most recent cases he was charged with an assault on April 19 and a burglary on June 7 — the cases that brought him before Daniels in court on Aug. 27.
He was arrested again last week on drug and resisting arrest charges — and again released.
Security camera footage obtained by The Post captured Worthy’s latest alleged crimes on Tuesday.
Around 5:30 p.m. he walked into Village Market & Grill on Hillside Avenue in Jamaica and tried to rob the retailer. The video shows Worthy pulling a gun out of a plastic bag and slamming it on the counter after ordering a $9 serving of rice, beans and chicken.
“He told me don’t move,” store clerk Satvir Kaur said Wednesday. “I was scared because he didn’t ask me for money, nothing. So I was scared he wanted to kill me.
“I ran away, downstairs into the basement,” Kaur said. “While I was downstairs we heard a gun shot.”
She said Worthy fired a shot at the cash register but wasn’t able to get the money inside. He then left the store, hopped on a bike and peddled away, the clerk said.
That’s when Kaur called police.
About an hour later cops said Worthy walked into a small smoke shop on Guy Brewer Boulevard and asked for a pack of cigarettes — then fired a shot at clerk Abdulla Abdulla.
“He said, ‘Give me all your money,’” Abdulla said. “I don’t even know how much money I gave him but I think maybe he wasn’t happy with how much it was.
“He shot at me, one shot, and it went between my legs,” he said. “It hit the glass at the front of the store. I said, ‘I gave you everything, you can check for yourself.’ He said, ‘OK, give me more Newports.’ I gave him Newport 100s and Newport Shorts, maybe 12 packs.”
Abdulla said Worthy then told him to get down and left the store.
Outside, veteran NYPD cop Rich Wong confronted Worthy, who turned and fired at officers, striking Wong in the thigh. The wounded cop fired back, striking Worthy in the face and killing him.
A 26-year-old bystander was also wounded and is expected to survive.
Wong was released from Jamaica Hospital on Wednesday as more than 200 NYPD cops, including from his own 103rd Precinct, cheered him on.
Outside the hospital, NYPD PBA President Patrick Hendry railed against the broken criminal justice system that allowed Worthy to remain free despite his repeated arrests and lifetime parole.
“Something’s got to change and it needs to change right away,” he said. “Cops feel that the system doesn’t have our back. Police officers will always have the backs of the people out in the communities. We will always be there for them. We will always take the criminals off the streets.
“But we need this system to back us.”