Costumed Robbery Suspect Who Allegedly Shot at Cops Under Arrest Updated December 19, 2011 7:43pm

MANHATTAN — New York City police have arrested a costumed criminal who allegedly opened fire on two police officers in early December, after investigators linked DNA from a pair of dark glasses dropped at the scene to a Harlem man with a history of bizarre behavior, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a statement Monday.

Antonio Olmeda, 53, was arrested getting into his 2001 Chevy Venture van on East 116 Street at about 8 a.m. Monday morning, after a four-hour stakeout by police.

He was taken into custody in connection with the Dec. 2 incident, in which police say he donned a fake beard, dark glasses, a hat and a long black trench coat and opened fire on a pair of beat cops who stopped him to ask for ID.  

“Our officers miraculously escaped injury when their assailant fired at extremely close range, narrowly missing them,” Kelly said in a statement.

Police chased the suspect, who shed his beard, hat and sunglasses as he ran. Though they lost him in the foot pursuit, they said DNA samples taken from the glasses led them to Olmeda, whose previous run-ins with the law include a 1994 arrest for patronizing a prostitute that netted a cache of 25 explosives and an Uzi, and a 2002 bust for carting around bomb-making materials and asking about security at Fort Bragg.

Olmeda was packing a loaded semi-automatic handgun at the time of his arrest, and had a revolver with several spent casings on the back seat, police said. Police also found lights and sirens, a counterfeit NYPD parking plaque and more than two dozen bottles of cleaning chemicals in the van.

Charges are pending against him, police said.