Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Assaults on Jamaica Police Officers Up by More Than 40 Percent

By Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska | November 17, 2014 8:24am
 Officer Kenneth Healey was seriously hurt when he was attacked in the 103rd Precinct.
Officer Kenneth Healey was seriously hurt when he was attacked in the 103rd Precinct.
View Full Caption
Getty Images

QUEENS — The number of attacks on police officers in the 103rd Precinct this year has increased by more than 40 percent, officials said.

The news comes weeks after a man attacked police officers with a hatchet and another officer was attacked with a crowbar by a robber in the neighborhood.

According to police statistics through Nov. 13, 36 officers have been assaulted this year in the 103rd Precinct, an increase of 44 percent compared with the same period last year, when 25 officers were assaulted.

“There is nothing definitive behind the increase, but it is something that we are experiencing right now,” said Deputy Inspector John Cappelmann, commanding officer of the 103rd Precinct, at a recent community council meeting.

The majority of assaults took place when suspects resisted arrest, Cappelmann said. Most did not result in serious injuries.

The most highly publicized incident occurred on Oct. 23, when Zale Thompson, 32, who police said was inspired by radical Islamic groups, attacked four rookie officers posing for a photo on Jamaica Avenue near 162nd Street, hitting Officer Kenneth Healey, 24, in the head with a metal hatchet.

He also wounded Officer Joseph Meeker, 25, in the right arm with another blow.

Meeker was treated and released from the hospital shortly after the attack.

But Healey, who underwent surgery on the day of the attack and is currently recovering at home, will require another surgery in three to six months, Cappelmann said.

“Considering how grievous his injuries were, his recovery so far has been nothing less than miraculous,” Cappelmann said.

"The first thing he asked when he woke up from surgery was if he could still be a police officer.”

Less than three weeks after that attack, another officer, Gobin Raghunath, was struck in the head with a crowbar while he and another lawman were responding to a burglary in progress on Nov. 10, at a house on 142nd Street near 109th Avenue.

“The guy came running down the stairs at full speed at the officers,” Cappelmann said. “He struck one of the officers in the head with a metal crowbar."

Raghunath was rushed to Jamaica Hospital, and released the same day after getting several stitches, police said.

"It was difficult for our precinct to go through this again," Cappelmann said.

In April, the inspector said, two officers were also injured after an unlicensed livery cab driver attempted to flee officers and struck them instead. The officers were not seriously hurt, Cappelmann said.