A trio of cops from the 84th Precinct were honored last week for their hand in ending a disturbing wave of street robberies in Brooklyn Heights.
The cops, Officers Omar Santiago, Benito Ocasio and Mark Holder, were working in plainclothes on the precinct’s anti−crime team, intent on ending a string of muggings being committed by increasingly brazen teens.
On April 25, unbeknownst to the underage thugs, the ‘hunters’ were about to become the hunted.
As the three teens were preparing to rob their sixth victim on Livingston Street near Court Street, according to Leslie Lewis, the president of the 84th Precinct Community Council, they were surrounded by the cops, who arrested the trio without incident. “That’s a hell of a thing,” remarked Lewis on the cops’ professionalism. “There was no violence involved.”
Captain Mark DiPaolo, the commanding officer of the precinct, said the teens, all ages 13−15 have already been linked to at least five previous robberies.
In each case, the victim was surrounded, and a demand was made for money. The incidents have all occurred between 5 and 9 p.m. In one case, DiPaolo said a 16−year−old victim suffered a broken jaw.
DiPaolo said his cops “knew what they were looking for,” and went out and did their job. He said the teens have plead guilty, and the matter is now in the court’s hands. “We’ll see what happens,” he said.
