Man who was shot by off-duty cop in road rage incident returns to NJ home

A man who was paralyzed by an off-duty New York City police officer in a road rage shooting returned to his New Jersey home after spending nearly two years at a specialized facility in Texas.

Kishan Patel, 30, recently returned to his home in Voorhees, New Jersey. Patel can’t walk or take care of himself after he suffered cardiac arrest during the shooting which resulted in a brain injury and a broken vertebra.  

His family addressed the media around 1 p.m. on Thursday, April 9, from inside the house which underwent more than $1 million in renovations to accommodate Patel’s injuries.

“You come to your home. Everything’s changed so we have to get used to everything,” Patel’s mother, Manjina Patel, said. “We just want to make Kishan comfortable. You know, take that hospital environment away from him.”

The shooting occurred at the intersection of Route 73 and Cooper Road in Voorhees Township, New Jersey, back on May 17, 2024. Police responded to a reported crash at the location and found Patel suffering from a gunshot wound.

After analyzing surveillance video, cellphone records and ballistics evidence, Voorhees Township Police and the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office identified Hieu Tran of Yonkers, New York, as the suspect in the shooting. Police said Tran – an officer with the New York City Police Department – used his department-issued firearm and shot Patel during an apparent road rage incident.

Investigators said Tran was off-duty at the time of the incident and had just left a wedding in the area. After the shooting, Tran “calmly drove north, stopped for gas, went home to New York, reloaded his weapon and went to work the next day,” according to attorneys for Patel’s family.

Investigators said shell casings at the crime scene matched Tran’s department-issued service weapon.

Tran was found guilty in the shooting and was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Dec. 15, 2025.

Attorney Joseph Marrone represented the Patel family who filed a lawsuit against the city of New York alleging that the city knew Tran had significant mental health challenges with longstanding alcoholism.

The New York City law department declined to comment but the NYPD confirmed that Tran was terminated from the department.