Teen: Fire cops in rough tackle
A TEENAGER who sustained a fractured skull when he was tackled in Chelsea said Thursday that he’s shocked the three cops involved are still working the streets.
Bobby Lopez gasped when he was told that Detective Paul Rivera, Officer Louis Defranco, and Lt. Fabian Sanchez are all on active duty, and have yet to face discipline for allegedly injuring him on W. 17th St. between Ninth and 10th Aves. on Aug. 16. “That’s horrible. That’s no respect,” Lopez, 19, said. “I feel worse inside.”
An NYPD spokesman said Lopez fell as he was trying to run. “One of the officers grabbed the suspect’s shirt as he tried to get away and the suspect fell down a stairway pulling the officer along with him,” the spokesman said.
The clash — captured on surveillance video — left Lopez with a permanent head injury and a dent on the left side of his head from the surgery. He was charged with resisting arrest and selling pot to his brother. Lopez has sued the NYPD. The charges were dismissed on Nov. 21, according to his lawsuit. AN ISIS SUICIDE bomber targeted one of the most revered shrines in Pakistan Thursday — killing at least 75 people in the deadliest attack the country has seen in more than two years.
It was the second deadly ISIS bombing of the day.
Security officials said the attacker appeared to have zeroed in on the women’s wing of the famous Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine, and at least 20 women and nine children were among the dead.
Hundreds of others were also wounded as they performed a ritual at the shrine, which is in Sehwan in the southern Sindh province.
The bomber entered the main hall of the gold domed mausoleum and detonated his payload amid dozens of worshippers, according to security officials.
Fazal Palejo, a senior health official in Sindh province, confirmed the death toll.
ISIS claimed the attack in a statement circulated by its Aamaq news agency, saying it had targeted a “Shiite gathering.”
The Sunni extremist group views Shiites as apostates and has targeted Pakistan’s Shiite minority in the past. It views Sufi shrines like the one targeted Thursday as a form of idolatry. Lal Shahbaz Qalandar was a 13th-century poet and philosopher.
Raja Somro, who witnessed the attack, told a local TV network that hundreds of people were performing a spiritual dance known as the Dhamal when the bomber struck.
“We were there for the love of our saint, for the worship of Allah,” a wailing woman told the Dawn News television channel outside the shrine, her headscarf streaked in blood. “Who would hurt us when we were there for devotion?”
Earlier Thursday, a car bomb at a Baghdad auto dealership killed at least 55 people and wounded more than 60 on Thursday, Iraqi officials said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Saad Maan confirmed the toll from the attack, which took place in the mainly Shiite al-Bayaa neighborhood.
The Islamic State group claimed the bombing in an online statement circulated by its Aamaq news agency.
The Sunni extremist group said it was targeting Shiites.
The extremist group has carried out near-daily attacks in Baghdad despite suffering military setbacks elsewhere in the country, including in the northern city of Mosul, where U.S.-backed Iraqi forces have been waging a major operation since October.
The U.S. State Department condemned the attack at the car dealership, saying such attacks show the extremist group’s “utter contempt for human life and its efforts to sow discord and division among the Iraqi people.”