NYPD officer shoots dead his childhood friend

Childhood friends sometimes grow apart. Resentments can fester as lives once lived together take radically different paths.

Certainly, it seems that something went very wrong in a childhood friendship to prompt a young Long Island man to shoot dead the man who was once his best pal.

Investigators in Nassau County were this week trying to make sense of the bizarre but tragic confrontation that allegedly saw the off-duty New York cop pump five rounds into his best friend, killing him instantly.

The officer, named as Errick Allen, is said to have recently joined the New York Police Department. His deceased friend, Christopher Curro, was reportedly working as a pizza deliveryman.

A fight involving several former schoolmates broke out Tuesday night on a wooded path just steps from the intersection of Langdon Road and Cornell Place in South Farmingdale, according to a local CBS News report.

Allen, 26, who is assigned to the 109th Precinct in Queens and lives in North Massapequa allegedly pulled his off duty weapon and shot Curro in the head, police said.

Police would not comment on what led to the fatal confrontation. However, several media sources, including Staten Island Live, reported that Curro, 25, was choking another man when Allen shot him.

Meanwhile, Curro’s devastated stepmother, Ellen, visited the crime scene on Wednesday and said she simply could not fathom what had brought the childhood friends to such a violent and tragic place.

“It’s just horrendous,” she told CBS. “It’s not a self defense. It’s like an execution. I don’t understand. They grew up together. They were best friends, literally best friends.”

For now, the Nassau County district attorney is leading the investigation. However, given that it concerns an NYPD officer, sources said it is possible that New York state attorney general Letitia James could soon take over the case.