An off-duty cop shot and killed a man trying to rob his wife, who may have been harboring $20,000 in illegal lottery winnings.

According to police, on Saturday, May 31, just before midnight, a man followed Jeanette Perez and her 3-year-old daughter into their Bedford Park apartment building, 314 E. 201st St.

When she got off the elevator on the third floor, he again followed her into the hallway and pulled out a gun. Pointing it at her, he told her to open the door to her apartment. Neighbors and her husband, Nadin Perez, an off-duty police officer, heard Jeanette Perez screaming in Spanish for help.

Nadin Perez quickly opened the door and pointed his own gun at the would-be robber, who police identified as Carlos Rios, 47, of 1948 Amsterdam Ave.

After securing his wife and daughter behind him, Nadin Perez chased after his wife’s attacker down three flights of stairs and fired seven shots at him. Rios was hit, but managed to get away and hide under a car, which, according to news reports, belonged to Perez. Rios was found there by police arriving on the scene and taken to Montefiore Medical Center, where he died at 12:26 a.m., June 1.  

Though it appears that Rios did not fire a single shot, a police spokesperson said the shooting was justified and Nadin Perez is not being charged with a crime.

Citing a handful of anonymous police sources, both the New York Post and Daily News reported that Jeannette Perez was holding onto $20,000 in illegal Dominican lottery winnings – numbers games run out of bodegas and check cashing shops. Police posited the money as a possible reason Jeanette Perez was targeted for a robbery attempt, the reports said.  

Both newspapers reported that Jeanette Perez was holding on to the money for a friend who was in jail and that her husband didn’t know about it until after the shooting incident.

A police spokesperson said she didn’t know about the $20,000 and directed any calls for further explanation to the Bronx district attorney’s office. Melvin Hernandez, a spokesman for the Bronx D.A.’s office referred to the case as the “one involving the lottery winnings,” but did not confirm by press time what had happened to the money. Just before press time, however, another Bronx D.A. spokesman said that, indeed, their office and the NYPD were continuing the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the shooting incident.