Police Blotter

Volume One, Issue 17, January 19 - 25, 2007 Police Blotter

By Albert Amateau

Assault on officers

Two men and a woman were arrested early Sat., Jan. 20, for attacking two off-duty policemen in the wake of a 4 a.m. accident on Tenth Ave. at W. 28th St. when the officers’ car rear-ended the car with the three suspects.

Lamont Lafducade, 33, and Durvell Williams, 21, both of Brooklyn, and Thelma Lopez, 28, of the Bronx, were charged with first-degree gang assault. Lafducade was also charged with driving while intoxicated.

Police said Richard Lomax, 29, an off-duty officer assigned to the Bronx, and his friend Robert DeFazio, 21, off duty from his Brooklyn precinct, got out of their car after the rear-end collision and were attacked by the three suspects. Lomax fell, hit his head on the pavement and was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital in critical condition. He was later described as being in stable condition. DeFazio was treated at St. Vincent’s and released.

Police said Lafducade, at the time of the incident, was on parole after serving nine years for attempted murder. Williams had previously been convicted of third-degree assault and on Jan. 25, his charges in the gang-assault case were reduced to third-degree assault. Williams was freed on $5,000 bail pending a Feb. 21 court appearance. Lopez had been arrested last month for assaulting a police officer, and that case is still pending.

Tenth Precinct police who cover the West Chelsea club neighborhood made the arrests.

Free on bail

Eric Harding, 36, and Patrick Day, 38, charged with robbing two victims as they were driving away from Sol, a club on W. 29th St., on Dec. 26, have been freed on bail pending a Feb. 9 court appearance.

The defendants are charged with taking diamond jewelry from one of the victims and shooting him in the leg as he and a companion got into their car after a night at Sol. The defendants, both of Brooklyn, were arrested after a police chase that ended when their minivan crashed into a car on W. 43rd St.