GRAMERCY — Two Brooklyn men and a Staten Island woman attacked an off-duty police officer from New Jersey and stole his gun after the man tried to break up a fight in the Gansevoort Park Avenue Hotel last month, according to police.
Reginald Legaspi, 21, of Sunset Park, and Pena Kumsiri, 27, of Staten Island, and Naser Apdunloh, 23, of Kensington, were inside the 420 Park Ave. South hotel when they got into a fight with an unknown man around 4:20 a.m. on Feb. 21, according to police.
As the 22-year-old Paterson, N.J. police officer tried to break up the scuffle, the three turned on him taking turns punching him in the face, and when the off-duty officer fell to the ground, Apdunloh allegedly kicked him in the head, grabbed his service handgun from its holster, and ran off with the weapon, according to a criminal complaint.
Police arrested Legaspi and Kumsiri nearby about two hours after the fight, and caught up with Apdunloh early the next day on Feb. 22, according to a police report. Officers managed to recover the stolen gun, according to a report, but it was unclear where or when they found it.
Prosecutors charged Legaspi and Kumsiri with gang assault and charged Apdunloh with assault, gang assault, and two counts of robbery, according to court records. A judge released Kumsiri and Legaspi on $2,500 bail and Apdunloh on $5,000 bail. All three are due back in court on April 25.
Apdunloh was already facing charges including larceny, robbery with physical injury, assault, and menacing stemming from an Aug. 9 arrest in Brooklyn, in which he and an accomplice are accused of stealing an iPhone 6 from a cab driver and punching him in the face repeatedly, according to a criminal complaint in that case.
Lawyers for the three, along with a representative of the hotel, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A representative of the Paterson Police Department declined to comment citing a pending investigation.
