NJ man who shot NYPD detective found him naked in bed with wife

Naked NYPD Detective Louis Pepe

The New Jersey man who shot a Brooklyn detective with the officer’s own gun found the cop butt naked in bed with his estranged wife — after embarrassingly learning of the affair from his 5-year-old daughter, The Post has learned.

“Mommy’s been having strange men over the house,” the young girl told Robert Dunbar — prompting him to pop in Friday on the Manalapan home they once shared, a source said.

Dunbar, 35, heard his wife, Deborah, inside with another man as he walked past the bedroom window of the home on tree-lined Taylors Mills Road.

He rushed inside and barged into the bedroom — discovering his Deborah in the sack with naked NYPD Detective Louis Pepe, according to Dunbar’s attorney, Mark Fonte.

The woman jumped up out of bed as the two men brawled.

“She started screaming, ‘The gun, the gun, the gun!’ And that’s when [Dunbar] saw the weapon at the corner of the bed,” said Fonte, adding that his client was unaware Pepe was a cop.

Both men lunged for Pepe’s service weapon, a .38-caliber revolver.

“He came up with the holster, my client came up with the gun,” said Fonte.

After the scrum, Dunbar stumbled backward with the weapon and it accidentally discharged — with one round striking the ceiling, the lawyer said.

Pepe allegedly high-tailed it into the bathroom.

“[Dunbar’s] estranged wife starts hitting him and the gun goes off again. This time, the bullet pierces the wall and hits the cop in the shoulder, who’s hiding,” said Fonte, maintaining that the second shot was also unintentional.

Panicked that Pepe was wounded, Dunbar fled and ditched the gun in some nearby woods, Fonte added. He surrendered with his attorney 20 hours later.

Dunbar, charged with attempted murder, remains locked up in the Monmouth County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Fonte said he intends to challenge the bail, and is quick to discount Pepe’s version of events.

“He’s telling everyone that he was there to look at a motor vehicle, because he flips cars on the side and fixes them for profit,” Fonte said.

“He’s telling everyone he is a hero who broke up a marital dispute. Then why was he naked?”

Pepe, 39, who was treated for a graze wound to his right shoulder, could not be reached for comment.

Dunbar has been separated from Deborah since January, and they have two other children, a 4-year-old girl and a 17-month-old boy.

NY POST