A Long Island woman has been busted for shooting an NYPD detective with a pellet gun in Queens, authorities said Sunday.
The plainclothes officer was on duty and sitting in an unmarked car near Jamaica Avenue and 168th Street on Wednesday when Tiara Ferebee, 24, of Riverhead, allegedly fired the air gun from a passing vehicle.
The pellet shattered the side window of the officer’s car around 5 p.m. and struck him in the forehead.
The projectile lodged in the detective’s forehead and caused swelling that has prevented doctors from immediately removing it, according to police sources, who added that he’s in good condition.
The motive behind the shooting was unclear, and cops were questioning a second woman, who was driving the car, the sources said.
That woman, who wasn’t identified, was tracked down using a partial license plate number that was captured on surveillance video. She gave up her friend, Ferebee, according to the sources.
Ferebee was refusing to cooperate with investigators, authorities said.
Cops are looking into whether Ferebee could be the pellet-gun shooter who has blasted out windows in Suffolk County, the sources said.
Late Sunday, Queens Criminal Court Judge Gia Morris ordered Ferebee held in lieu of $1 million bond or $500,000 cash.
Ferebee was charged with attempted murder of a police officer, assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon, possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment.
She faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted on all counts.
Ferebee has also been connected to a vehicle involved in a similar shooting in Nassau County, according to prosecutors.
She has posted on Facebook about her “short temper.”
“Was told I have a short temper😈😈 by 2 different people in 2 different was [sic]!” she wrote on her page in November 2015. “Do I.!?”
In another post, from that same month. Ferebee wrote, “heart wants to love, mind want to hate.” That post was accompanied by a knife emoji.
A top police union official blasted her, saying the cop could have been badly wounded.
“A few inches lower and the detective could have been blinded by the pellet,” said Detectives’ Endowment Association president Michael Palladino.
“This woman’s depraved behavior warrants punishment to the fullest extent of the law,” he added.
“Let her sit in prison for years and think about it.”
Additional reporting by Emily Saul, Larry Celona and Tina Moore