MAN SHOT 30 FEET AWAY FROM A NYPD MOBILE COMMAND CENTER WHILE THE COP SLEPT INSIDE! SAYS HE THOUGHT IT WAS FIREWORKS!

The outraged family of a young father fatally shot while a police officer napped nearby said he might have survived had the cop been awake.
Elias Ramirez was gunned down July 4, just a few yards from a police command center in East New York where supervisors say Barry Knox dozed off.

"My son could still be alive if he was paying attention," Elena Ramirez, 49, said Saturday.

Knox, 46, was called before an NYPD disciplinary panel to justify staying in the mobile command center while gunfire rang out. Knox, a 15-year veteran, said he thought the 5 a.m. gunplay was early Independence Day fireworks.

"That's bull----!" cried the dead man's father, Elias Ramirez Sr., 55. "There's no fireworks at 5 a.m."

Ramirez, 23, was shot twice just a few feet from his Loring Ave. home in the Louis H. Pink Houses. The shooting happened about 30 feet from the NYPD command center.

"Embarrassing," said a police source familiar with the investigation. "The kid's shot practically in our lap."

The command center was set up near the housing complex after a previous homicide, sources said. There have been two officers - one inside, one outside - manning the van since Ramirez's homicide.

On July 4, Knox was alone in the center, sources added.

"I thought we would be safer when the police are there," the grieving mother said. "I never thought something like that could happen."