A 23-year-old man is facing 25 years in prison after he allegedly took a pot shot at police officers arresting him for rape.
Investigators said that Norman Vanigas was charged with attempted murder, rape, and other charges on June 27 in connection with the attack on June 22.
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes claims that Vanigas attacked a woman in her Oceanview Avenue home at 11 pm.
Cops were called to the scene on a report that a man was holding a woman captive with a gun and a knife. After receiving a description of the suspect, cops spotted Vanigas a few blocks away — where he reportedly pulled out a gun and fired one shot at the officers. No one was hit and cops didn’t return fire, officials said.
Vanigas ran off, but was apprehended in the Bronx on June 24 following a city-wide manhunt.
Vanigas was held without bail after his arraignment last Wednesday. Attempts to reach his attorney were unsuccessful.
‘Anti-cop’ imprisoned
A cop accused of falsely charging an African American with a crime — then boasting about his misdeed by declaring how he “fried another n—–” — was sentenced to more than four years in prison last week, after a Brooklyn federal court judge said that he had “embraced the anti-cop way.”
Prosecutors charged former officer Michael Daragjati with fabricating charges against a black man in Staten Island and arresting him. He was also accused of threatening to assault another man he had stolen a snowplow from.
A federal jury convicted him of both crimes. At last week’s sentencing, Daragjati shrugged off his actions, calling them a “bad judgement call” — a statement that threw Judge William F. Kuntz into a rage.
“My goodness, sir, you just made the worst possible argument a policeman could make,” said Kuntz, who is black. “You knew how to act as a real police officer, but you embraced the anti-cop way, the criminal way.”
Reach reporter Thomas Tracy at ttracy@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2525.
