Cop beaten, gun swiped
Susp ID’d in Bronx mugging
A CITY COP was mercilessly beaten and robbed of her gun as she made her way to work Wednesday morning, police and witnesses said.
Nilda Quezada, 41, was walking to her car in the garage of her Bronx building at 5 a.m. when a man cops identified as Samuel Thornton, 21, jumped her, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce. “He grabbed her chain from her neck and then went for her bag,” Boyce said. “And she fought him. They were going back and forth . . . a tug-of-war type situation.”
Quezada’s 9-mm. pistol was in her handbag, although it’s forbidden for cops to carry their firearm in a bag or a purse, according to NYPD guidelines.
Thornton allegedly punched Quezada four times, landing haymaker after haymaker on the mother of two as he demanded she let the handbag go, said Robert Rodriguez, superintendent of the building on E. 226th St. in Wakefield.
“She was putting up a struggle, but this guy got the best of her,” said Rodriguez, 47, who saw a surveillance video of the attack. “He kept punching her and punching her, but she didn’t want to let go of her purse.”
The handbag ultimately fell to the ground, police sources said. They said the thief saw the gun inside, grabbed it and ran away.
Cops were still hunting Thornton, who has one previous arrest on a charge of selling pot in the neighborhood, early Thursday. He was last seen wearing a white tank top and dark pants.
Rodriguez was outraged by the thief’s callousness.
“What really gets me is that he hit a woman,” Rodriguez said of the suspect. “You can’t hit a woman. It’s like hitting your mother. It’s a sin.”
The Harlem cop, who just recently celebrated a decade with the NYPD, suffered cuts and bruises on her nose and face.
Quezada could be facing a command discipline for carrying the gun in her handbag, but any actions won’t be taken until after an arrest is made, Boyce said.
“That’s something for remediation after this investigation,” he said.
Rodriguez said the thief doesn’t live in the building but had been seen hanging around outside.
The attack left Quezada’s neighbors worried about security.
“I’m a single mother and my 14-yearold lives here,” said tenant Rosalie Elis. “That could have been me. I’m very, very nervous.”