An off-duty cop moonlighting as a Madison Square Garden security guard was left with “permanent” spinal injuries after being pounced on during a scuffle with notorious rapper Lil Tjay, a new lawsuit claimed.
NYPD officer John Przybyszewski was working a security detail for a boxing match at MSG’s Hulu Theater when Bronx-born rapper Lil Tjay — whose real name is Tione Jayden Merritt — lost his cool, and, along with his entourage of pals and bodyguards, fueled a brawl, court papers filed Monday said.
“This didn’t just hurt my body, it changed how I live,” Przybyszewski, who said he now suffers “daily neck and back pain,” told The Post.
The rapper became “volatile and combative” with staff and “other guests” during the lightweight championship bout between Keyshawn Davis and Denys Berinchyk last February, leading MSG officials to instruct the off-duty cop to remove him from the arena, according to the filing in Manhattan Supreme Court.
As one of the only two paid detail officers there — allegedly six fewer than what was needed — Przybyszewski “calmly” asked Merritt to leave, the litigation said.
But the rapper began yelling at the off-duty cop and shoved him backwards — before his entourage knocked him to the ground, court papers claimed.
Several people fell on top of the security guard, leaving Przybyszewski in “severe pain,” according to the lawsuit.
At some point, Merritt — reportedly permanently banned from the Garden — also spat in the face of an MSG employee, according to the suit and videos.
Przybyszewski was rushed to NYU Tisch Hospital, court papers said, where doctors told him he had serious cervical spinal injuries, including damage to two lumbar discs.
“I love being a police officer, but this injury stole the certainty of my future,” said Przybyszewsk, who joined the NYPD in 2018. “I may never know how far my career could have gone or what my full potential truly was.”
The “permanent” injuries are “a direct result of the severe understaffing,” the cop claimed in his lawsuit, which accuses the promoter and MSG of negligence and Merritt of assault and battery.
MSG “knowingly chose to understaff a crowded professional boxing event” and left only two security guards to handle the rowdy crowd, court documents said.
That’s despite the Garden’s own assessment that the boxing match needed at least eight paid detail officers, according to the lawsuit, setting the stage for the “chaotic and completely uncontrolled.”
Przybyszewski told The Post that while he filed a complaint with the Manhattan District Attorney, they recently declined to pursue the case.
The DA did not reply to a message seeking an update.
John Scola, Przybyszewski’s attorney, “a hardworking officer who took a second job to earn extra money.”
“The defendants’ reckless conduct didn’t just injure him,” Scola said, “it jeopardized his career and permanently altered his life.”
A spokesperson for MSG said they were “just made aware” of the lawsuit, and offered no further comment.
This isn’t Merritt’s first run-in with the law.
In 2023, he was cuffed on weapons charges in the Bronx, and a year earlier, was shot multiple times in New Jersey.
An attorney for Merritt did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
