#NYC Correction officer John Jeff, 28, shot dead in Queens: police sources

An off-duty New York City correction officer was shot dead in Queens early Saturday in a barrage of gunfire, law enforcement sources said.

John Jeff, 28, was found on dead on the sidewalk at Ridgedale and Defoe streets around 3 a.m. in Jamaica, riddled with 11 gunshot wounds, the sources said.

Witnesses who attended a party near the crime scene say they heard shots and then saw a man lying on the ground, bleeding from the head.

“Everybody started running, screaming. I lost a shoe and a finger nail,” she said holding up a finger with a red fake nail missing. “I was almost trampled over.”

Another woman said, “I heard someone shouting, ‘Yo, someone got shot, someone got shot.’ I ran to the corner. I saw a man laying there. I heard screeching like tires.”

The good Samaritan furiously tried to perform CPR on the victim, but felt no pulse.

“I was busy trying to save him. I saw blood but I only realized he was shot in the head when the police came.”

Jeff, who had more than two years on the job, was assigned to the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island, said Correction Officers Benevolent Association President Benny Boscio Jr. in a statement.

Jeff had “his whole life and career ahead of him. He was well-liked and highly regarded by his fellow officers. … Our hearts and prayers are with Correction Officer Jeff’s family and his fellow officers at AMKC during this painful time,” he said in a statement.

COBA is offering a $10,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of Jeff’s killer, Boscio said.

Jeff was pronounced dead at Jamaica Hospital.

A third witness said she also tried to rouse the victim.

“I tapped him. He wasn’t moving. I think he was already dead. There was a lot of blood around his head,” she said.

A man who lives nearby said he heard two shots and saw a man lying on the ground when he walked closer.

“It’s not a bad area. But when you hear something like this, it makes you nervous.”