Ex-NYPD officer charged in friend's slaying gets new bond conditions after suicide threat, court records show

A now-former NYPD officer out on bond after his murder arrest in the May shooting of a childhood friend in Farmingdale recently threatened to kill himself and was hospitalized on a suicide watch after a police dog found him hiding in a shed, court records show.

Last week a judge ordered Errick Allen, 27, of North Massapequa, not to leave the state and to abide by a new curfew by staying in his parents’ home between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m., except to see a doctor or attorney.

Acting State Supreme Court Justice Robert Schwartz also said Allen must continue psychiatric treatment and his mental health provider will have to submit monthly reports to the court as part of the defendant's new bond conditions.

The judge denied a prosecution request to remand Allen to jail or put him on house arrest after what he called the defendant’s "mental breakdown."

Authorities have alleged Allen fired five bullets into Christopher Curro, 25, of West Babylon, at close range with his 9 mm service weapon on May 12 after a struggle with the unarmed man in the street in front of a Langdon Road home.

The off-duty NYPD rookie then fled without calling 911 before returning about 30 minutes later with his stepfather and admitting to police he shot the fellow Farmingdale High School graduate, according to authorities.

Nassau police arrested Allen more than a week after the slaying of Curro, a pizza deliveryman whose aunt said had been best friends with Allen since they were 5 or 6 years old.

The state attorney general's office, which is handling the case as a special prosecutor, didn't immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment on Allen's new bond conditions.

Allen's defense lawyer, Anthony La Pinta, said Wednesday that his client "has been devastated, depressed and brokenhearted since this tragedy happened."

He added that Allen is getting mental health treatment "that will help him through this difficult time" and will be ready for his trial in the near future.

"When the truth emerges, he will be vindicated," La Pinta also said.

The defense attorney has said previously in court that his client acted in self-defense and that detectives took photos showing injuries Allen suffered that night — with Allen telling police that Curro had banged Allen’s head on the ground.

The NYPD said this week that the agency fired Allen, who worked in the 109th Precinct in Queens after his 2019 hiring, on May 21 — the day of his District Court murder arraignment. He pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and a judge remanded him to jail.

But Allen got out of Nassau’s jail on May 27 after Schwartz set a $500,000 bond a day earlier that also required the ex-officer to wear an electronic monitoring device and surrender his passport and any guns in his household.

Allen’s latest bond conditions come after he left home on the evening of Oct. 19 after making a suicide threat to family members, the state attorney general’s office said in court last week.

Nassau police found Allen in a search that included helicopter and K-9 units after probation officials were able to trace his location to a sump area because of his ankle bracelet, Assistant Attorney General Joshua Gradinger told the judge.

Allen ran through at least one yard toward his grandparents’ home and hid after police responded to the area, the prosecutor also said at the Oct. 27 hearing.

"He was hiding in a shed, only to come out when the K-9 dog sniffed him out," Gradinger added, saying Allen wasn’t taking his medication at the time.

But besides denying remand and house arrest, Schwartz pointed out that Allen hadn't been indicted in the five months since his release on bond.

La Pinta told the judge on Oct. 27 that the defense had "done everything humanly possible" to obey bond conditions.

The defense attorney said Allen’s ankle bracelet lost power while he was hospitalized, but his client had been monitored since going to probation to get the device charged after his hospital release.

La Pinta also told the judge Allen was suffering from acute depression and was on "a litany of medications," but "didn't run from the police" during the Oct. 19 encounter.

"This has been made out to be something a bit more egregious and compelling than it is," he added in court.