The shootout on Thursday night that we reported with the help of some nearby residents just took an extra-strange turn… and just in time for Halloween.
According to Leslie Albrecht at DNAinfo, who talked to an unidentified source, the officer who was assaulted on 91st Street and Riverside Drive was assaulted a month ago in the exact same spot. (The photo above has nothing to do with anything related to the case, except that the guy looks ready to get to the bottom of a mystery.)
In that attack, around 10:35 p.m. on Sept. 27, the officer said he was walking on 91st Street and Riverside Drive when he saw two men mugging a woman in Riverside Park and intervened. During the scuffle, he was hit in the head by a blunt object.
In last Thursday’s attack, the same officer was walking by 91st and Riverside Drive again around 10:40 p.m. before heading to work in the Bronx and said he saw a man slashing a car’s tires. The officer confronted him and the two exchanged gunfire, Leslie reported. Then the man accosted the officer, assaulting him and taking his gun. The officer’s gun was recovered but the suspect got away.
So a shootout turned into an assault, after the attacked decided to approach the officer who was shooting at him? I’m no Colombo, but that just sounds…odd.
We actually heard about the September incident from a commenter on our post about Thursday’s attack: West Side Rag reader Katherine wrote:
“There was a similar incident about three weeks ago at the same spot, same time of night. An off duty officer and a perpetrator who got away, details unclear. The following night two detectives were asking dog walkers if they’d seen anything the night before. The area was marked with yellow tape the following morning but people were just stepping right over it.”
Another West Side Rag commenter was also suspicious of the police explanation about Thursday’s attack:
“Something is weird in this story. What was the off-duty cop, who more than likely doesn’t live in the area, doing in the park alone that time of night? And why did the cops descending on the area feel the need to order all off-duty cops out of the park? Is riverside a popular place for off-duty cops that time of night? If so, why? What are they up to/looking for?”
Indeed, if anyone has an inkling of what the hell is going on around Riverside Park and 91st Street, please let us know.
Photo of guy with magnifying glass by andercismo via flickr.
