Results tagged “sergeant”

As a 15-year veteran of the NYPD, Sergeant Joseph Spiekerman knew exactly what to do after drunkenly running a red light and plowing into 68-year-old Barry Gintel one morning last month: Refuse to take the breath test! Though he admitted he'd been drinking, cops on the scene had to get a court order to draw his blood, so we'll never know just how wasted Officer Spiekerman was when he ran over Gintel at 6:40 a.m. on June 29th at York Avenue and 86th Street. Gintel was on his way back to his apartment after buying a coffee and two buttered rolls at The Mansion diner; the cashier tells the Daily News, "I give him his change, look out the window, and I see he got hit and goes flying 10, maybe 20 feet in the air." The impact shattered the windshield of Spiekerman's Volvo and Gintel underwent emergency surgery for two fractured legs, broken ribs, a ruptured spleen, and head and neck injuries. He's still in the hospital and wearing a neck brace! Spiekerman has been suspended without pay and is charged with felony vehicular assault and DWI, and the News seems rather surprised that "police officials declined to explain why they failed to release details of the crash and Spiekerman's arrest sooner."

A retired NYPD sergeant with no prior criminal record was arrested yesterday just minutes after robbing a Long Island bank. Thomas Feeney, 47, who retired 12 years ago because of knee injures and a heart condition, allegedly walked into a Huntington Station bank Tuesday morning and passed the teller a note demanding cash and calling attention to the loaded .38-caliber pistol tucked in his waistband. He walked out with an undisclosed sum, but one brave bank employee trailed him to his SUV and phoned in his license plate to police, who pulled him over just a couple miles away. Besides the gun and the cash, cops found a badge noting he was a retired NYPD officer in his pocket (but arrested him anyway!). Sgt. Robert Doyle of the Major Case Investigations Unit tells Newsday, "He said he'd been out so long that he doesn't get much money in disability anymore." Apparently, Feeney's got credit card debt in the five figure range, and Doyle tells the Post the bank job "appears to be economically motivated." But let's not rule out thirst for adventure as a motive, either.

After serving tours in the Middle East, it was a Brooklyn backyard barbecue that proved deadly for Sergeant Kidson George. The 26-year-old man was gunned down on the porch of a Crown Heights home where he was celebrating the 4th of July with his girlfriend and others. George was shot twice in the chest by his girlfriend's former boyfriend, sending children screaming and dashing for cover.