MANHATTAN — A six-year NYPD veteran was suspended after a shirtless, shackled prisoner escaped his custody while the officer was talking on a cellphone, sources said.
The officer, Albert Belcher of the Midtown South precinct, arrested Daniel Ortiz In Macy's where he was shoplifting and took him to the Lenox Health Greenwich Village at 30 Seventh Ave. about 3:30 p.m. Thursday, when Ortiz complained that three-day old cuts on his right hand and stomach from a fight were opening, sources said.
Inside the emergency medical room, a doctor asked Belcher to remove a shackle from one of Ortiz's legs before evaluating the situation. He also requested that he free up his injured hand, which prompted Belcher to handcuff Ortiz's left hand to a bed for him to be examined, according to sources.
As they waited for the exam, Belcher apparently walked away to make a call on his cellphone for four minutes, sources said. When he returned, he found Oritz was gone, and the handcuffs hanging from the bed.
Surveillance video spotted Ortiz, who left his shirt behind, rushing down into the nearby subway at 14th Street and Seventh Avenue. He was bleeding from his wrist and had shackles fastened to one leg, and hadn't been arrested as of Friday afternoon, police said.
The officer was suspended Friday for failing to safeguard his prisoner, an NYPD spokeswoman said.
Ortiz, who is about 5-foot-6 and 130 pounds, was last seen in a dark pea coat, blue jeans, chocolate-colored boots and leg shackles, police said.
He also walks with a limp, they added.
Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS (8477).
