Rookie cop cheats death

A 22-year-old rookie cop from the 106th Precinct put his life on the line just two months after graduating from the Police Academy when he tried to apprehend a Howard Beach man armed with a steak knife who attempted to murder him.
“I’m glad everyone is OK and nobody was seriously injured,” said Police Officer Stuart Ingram of the attack.
Joseph Leonardi, 51, had been driving a 1996 Buick shortly after 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 1 when he jumped the sidewalk, missing several people in front of St. Helen’s Church at 158-49 83rd Street and crashed into a brick wall, according to District Attorney Richard A. Brown.
Sister Hannah Marie Cox, who was just leaving work at the church rectory, said she saw a group of teenagers running toward her with the knife-wielding Leonardi in pursuit. They warned her, “There’s a crazy man with a knife tearing the [church] sign down,” just prior to the accident, she said.
Cox said she had expected that Leonardi would continue the chase on foot, but he instead jumped into his parked car.
“He came speeding right at us and we all jumped behind the fence,” Cox said, describing how Leonardi, whom witnesses and cops responding to the scene described as intoxicated, drove up onto the sidewalk and hit a tree before slamming into the wall. He then got out of his car and fled the scene.
Ingram and Sergeant Daniel Peterson, responding to a radio call, intercepted the knife-wielding suspect near 159th Avenue.
As the scene played out, Ingram tried to get Leonardi to drop his knife, but to no avail. Leonardi, who later admitted to drinking three martinis before dinner, then tried to stab Ingram in the chest.
Rather than landing a fatal blow, however, Leonardi’s knife hit Ingram’s nickel and silver police shield, number 5287, and shattered into five pieces.
“Everything happened so fast. I just saw pieces of the knife flying around my field of vision. I guess I was in shock,” published reports quoted Ingram as saying.
“When I look back, I guess it was kind of scary,” said the cop.
According to Brown, Leonardi continued to resist arrest by refusing to place his hands behind his back as police officers tried to handcuff him and would not to let go of the broken knife.
Leonardi could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted of charges that include first- and second-degree attempted murder, attempted aggravated assault upon a police officer, first-degree attempted assault, first-degree reckless endangerment, second-degree menacing, resisting arrest, endangering the welfare of a child, fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon and operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs according to Brown.