NYC gang member who shot two cops reportedly wailed after arrest: ‘One of you is going to get shot and that’s a damn problem’: Documents

A suspected gang member who shot two NYPD sergeants during a robbery whined to arresting officers, “If one of you gets shot, that's a damn problem,” new court documents show.

Records show that 22-year-old Joshua Dorsett incredulously asked police for a glass of water and then told them to stop complaining about wounding the officers he shot after robbing a Canal Street mahjong parlor on August 1.

“People get shot all day long at Citizen, one of you gets shot and that's a damn problem. Shit,” Dorsett told officers moments after the standoff, according to documents filed when he was arraigned on attempted murder charges in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Dorsett, whose mother cried in the audience as prosecutors released new details about the case, also claimed, according to the records, that he “blacked out” during the alleged shooting and did not know how the shot went off.

“When that happened, I was like, 'F–k, MY LIFE IS OVER.' I'm black,” Dorsett allegedly told officers. “I had both hands behind my back. He reached into my pocket, the officer and the gun went boom.”

Dorsett pleaded not guilty to attempted first-degree murder, robbery, assault and other charges.

Dorsett stormed into the salon at 4 p.m. and robbed a group of 20 people at gunpoint while they were playing dice, said Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Mireille Dee.

Dorsett, who was seen on several surveillance cameras, allegedly stole several handbags, a backpack and some cash after the robbery when he went to a nearby clothing store to change clothes and escape police, prosecutors said.

Minutes later, two veteran police officers – Sergeant Carl Johnson, 43, of the Fifth Precinct, and Sergeant Christopher Leap, 34, of the Seventh Precinct – spotted Dorsett and attempted to detain him on Eldridge Street near Delancy Street, police said.

“The defendant ran from police, clutching the gun in his right pocket, and refused to stop despite being pursued by several police officers,” Dee said, adding that Dorsett continued to refuse to give police officers his right hand even as they arrested him.

At that moment, Dorsett fired his .45 semi-automatic pistol, hitting Johnson in the groin, and the same bullet pierced and grazed Leap's left leg, 5 feet behind him, prosecutors said.

Dorsett refused to be detained, and police found a bullet casing lodged in the suspected gang member's gun chamber, prosecutors said.

Dorsett, who gave the middle finger to a camera in a cell after his arrest, had been on probation for just over a month after being convicted in May of six counts of selling crack cocaine to an undercover officer.

He was also arrested as a juvenile offender in another armed robbery in 2020 when he tried to snatch a Louis Vuitton handbag from someone – with the victim claiming to have heard a “click” from Dorsett's silver pistol, prosecutors said.

The alleged gangster has also been sentenced to 12 months in a youth correctional facility for illegal possession of stolen goods, said Dee, who asked Judge Laura Ward for his remand.

“If you are guilty of these charges, it is truly a disgrace because you had two chances – one as a minor and one while on probation,” Judge Dorsett scolded as she remanded him in custody.

Vincent Vallelong, president of the NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association, branded Dorsett a villain who should spend the rest of his life in prison.

“[Dorsett] has nothing to offer society,” Vallelong said in court. “To be honest, he tried to kill two people, the two people he tried to kill before. He should go to prison for the rest of his life.”

Dorsett's attorney, Bernadette Rabuy of the New York County Defender Service, has postponed a request for bail.

Dorsettis is scheduled to appear in court again on December 9.