Federal agents arrested an ex-EMT from Sheepshead Bay on Tuesday morning for allegedly stealing nearly 200 oxycodone pills from a drug dealer in 2017.
The 28-year-old defendant, who is the son of a high-ranking FDNY official, is said to have impersonated a cop in July 2017 by brandishing a fake police badge and falsely arresting a man with plastic handcuffs before confiscating nearly 180 prescribed oxycodone pills and fleeing from the scene on 63rd Street between 17th and 18th avenues in Bensonhurst.
The defendant was initially arrested as a suspect for the crime in October 2017, but the complaint states the Kings County District Attorney refused to prosecute him because the accuser had not made an in-person identification of the suspect.
The man was arrested days prior to the incident in Staten Island for again impersonating a cop — a charge that was later dropped, the complaint states — and the arresting officer later went on to identify him as the suspect of the robbery in Bensonhurst.
According to court documents, the accuser originally misled police on his own activity when initially speaking with him in 2017 where he did not disclose that pills were taken or that he had made plans to meet a buyer at the scene of the crime to sell them his prescription pills.
When the suspect was first arrested in 2017 for the alleged mugging, he had said to the officers “you know that the guy I robbed is a drug dealer, right? The news made it sound worse than it was. I was just in a bad place and figured he was a bad guy and I needed pills. I didn’t think it out, I didn’t think he would call the cops.”
The suspect has been the subject of previous news reports in 2017 when critics called on the FDNY to terminate him from his post as an EMT, claiming that he would fail to show up for 911 requests and having impersonated a cop on multiple occasions.
If convicted on the charge of Hobbs Act robbery, the defendant can face up to 20 years in prison. He posted bail with a $150,000 bond, according to prosecutors, and his next court appearance has not yet been scheduled.
The suspect’s attorney, Amanda David from the Federal Defenders of New York, declined comment.
