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Knife-Wielding Muggers Caught with PEP’s Help Parks Enforcement Patrol officers played a key role in the arrest of two teens last month after they allegedly robbed two teenage boys at knifepoint in Battery Park City’s Rockefeller Park. According to police, the victims, 14 and 15 years old, were playing outdoors on a table top game set up by the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy near the north end of the park around 4:20 p.m., Aug. 5, when another pair of boys approached them. One of the approaching teens grabbed one of the victims and held a knife to his throat, demanding their cash and cell phones. The victim surrendered $10 in cash. The second suspect took the knife from his accomplice, pointed it at the second victim and demanded all the money in his pockets. The second victim surrendered $17. The two suspects, a 17-year-old from East 100th Street, Manhattan, and a 15-year-old Bronx boy, fled south along River Terrace. After the attack, the victims reported the robbery to Battery Park City Parks Conservancy employees, who then contacted Parks Enforcement officers and police, who took descriptions of the muggers.
“I was across the street when I spotted them,” Smith told the Trib. “They were about to make for it when they saw [the other officers] closing in, then I guess they figured, ‘Why bother?’ They weren’t going to get away.” Six other PEP officers—Yvette Rhodes, Charles St. Louis, Anthony Burdge, Charles Capozello, Rohan Lumsden and Sgt. Samuel Hendricks—cornered the suspects and prevented them from fleeing until police arrived with the victims. The teens were charged with first-degree robbery after the victims positively identified them. “It was just good police work all around,” Sgt. Hendricks said. “[Robberies] don’t happen often in this part of the park, but when they do happen, we’re prepared.” Battery Park City Authority president Jim Cavanaugh said he was impressed with the PEP officers’ performance, and credited them with helping to keep down the crime rate in Battery Park City. “They did a nice job of acting on the description and getting the suspects into custody,” Cavanaugh said. In response to the robbery, Cavanaugh said the BPCA and Parks Department would review their patrol patterns in Rockefeller Park in the coming weeks. As many as seven PEP officers patrol the park at any given time, Cavanaugh said. “We’re going to make sure we’re maximizing our coverage in the park,” Cavanaugh said. “I think we provide a high level of protection, but we want to be certain everybody is alert and on their toes.” Parks Department Deputy Commissioner Kevin Jeffrey said that although a review is a good idea, it was unlikely that patrol patterns of the PEP officers, who are Parks Department employees, would change as a result of the robbery. “It’s certainly something we’re going to keep an eye on, but I don’t think there’s enough [of a pattern] here to warrant a shift in the patrols. When something like this happens, officers instinctively pay more attention to the spot where it happened.”
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