Cop’s face sliced in B’klyn melee bust

A BROOKLYN police officer was slashed across the face and neck with a box cutter while trying to break up a fight over the weekend, police sources said Monday.

Officer Denisha Pierre was cut on the left side of her face, from her cheek to her neck, in the Sunday morning incident.

She was taken to New York Methodist Hospital and treated for superficial cuts.

Sources said Pierre, a 14-year veteran assigned to Patrol Borough Brooklyn North’s anti-crime team, was in plainclothes when she and other officers responded at about 1:10 a.m. to a large fight at Saratoga Ave. and Marion St. in Brownsville. Pierre was trying to break up the melee when she was assaulted.

The suspect, Xiomara Velez, 27, did not intend to cut Pierre and was fending off a sledgehammer-wielding attacker during the fight, said her lawyer, Robert Heilbun.

Velez was charged with second- and third-degree assault, menacing, resisting arrest, criminal possession of a weapon, attempted assault, harassment and obstructing governmental administration.

Velez, who was injured in the fight, wore a cast on her left arm and cried during her Brooklyn Supreme Court arraignment Monday. Her arm is broken in two places, Heilbun said.

“It’s unclear how the officer was slashed. My client is not a criminal,” said Heilbun, who added that Velez works for the city Parks Department.

Judge Carolyn Walker-Diallo set bail at $25,000 bond or $15,000 cash.

Rocco Parascandola and Christina Carrega-Woodby