Witness in trial of dirty cop found dead

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A man who was set to testify against an NYPD officer charged in connection with a drug-dealing operation was strangled and his body was left in the back of his car near 6071 Broadway, according to police. 

Robert Bishun, 36, appears to have been abducted from an auto body shop where he worked on Stillwell Avenue in Morris Heights, police said. His body was found in the backseat of his BMW with a zip tie around his neck, according to police. 

The murder was originally reported as a robbery gone awry. It happened when two men with guns and masks stormed into Mr. Bishun’s shop on Sept. 20, abducted and killed him, police said. 

His body was found on Broadway, using the car’s GPS system.

Mr. Bishun was set to testify against police officer Merlin Alston, who has been charged in connection for allegedly acting as a bodyguard for a drug dealer over the course of four years. 

In court last week, Judge Colleen McMahon revoked Mr. Alston’s bail, saying the circumstances of Mr. Bishun’s gruesome death were too convenient.

“I’ve been around the racetrack once or twice,” Judge McMahon said at a hearing. “It certainly sounds like a contract killing.”

Mr. Bishun was arrested in 2012 when cops raided his shop and found heroin and cocaine hidden inside one of the cars, and in 2014 pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic drugs, though he never faced jail time. 

Robert Bishun, Merlin Alston, Anthony Capote