Cardio collar for cops on Blaz beat
TWO NYPD OFFICERS assigned to Mayor de Blasio’s security detail arrested the goon wanted for suckerpunching an 85-year-old man after they spotted the suspect during their Sunday morning jog, police said.
The eagle-eyed cops were getting their cardio on the FDR running path around Gracie Mansion at about 8:30 when they spotted Edwin Suazo, 35, who resembled the suspect wanted for assaulting Bernie Herron last week for no apparent reason, police said.
Surveillance footage from the Tuesday afternoon attack, inside Carl Schurz Park near E. 90th St. and East End Ave., showed the brute slink up behind the retired psychologist and hit the man in the back of the head.
The punch knocked Herron, who has lived on the Upper East Side since 1961, to the ground and left him with cuts on the back of his head and over his right eye, police said.
After they spotted Suazo, the officers approached and took him into custody without incident near the same spot where he allegedly attacked Herron.
Suazo was charged with assault, police said.
It remained unclear what spurred the attack.
The 19th Precinct later took to Twitter to congratulate to the officers for taking down Suazo.
“Great arrest by Det. Carter & Officer Barker identifying & arresting man wanted for assaulting an 85y/o senior in #CarlSchurz Park #UES,” the tweet said. This wasn’t Suazo’s with police. first run-in
On Feb. 5, 2014, Suazo was charged with assault and criminal mischief after he struck a police officer in the face and throat and threw an object at an unmarked police van. In April 2014, cops stopped him for having an open 40-ounce bottle of Colt .45 and found he had an open warrant.
Later that year, he was charged with petty larceny after allegedly swiping a bottle of Jack Daniel’s from a duty-free store at Terminal B at LaGuardia Airport.
Then in March 2016 he was arrested after hopping a turnstile on the Upper East Side.
He was awaiting arraignment on Sunday for the most recent incident.