By Connor Adams Sheets
The 109th Precinct Community Council honored the two first responders to the scene of the rape and murder of Yu Yao, 23, with Cop of the Month awards at its final meeting last week before breaking for the summer. It was also a chance for community members to socialize, meet members of the force and eat barbecue together.
When the precinct received a call from a man who heard Yao screaming for help at about 9:16 p.m. May 16, Police Officer Edward Chu steered himself and his passenger, Officer Julio Vasquez, both of whom were on routine patrol in a police vehicle at the time, in the direction of the scene at 41st Road and Main Street.
When they arrived, they spoke with the shaken witness, whose name has not been released, and were told the suspect had left in the direction of College Point Boulevard. Along the way, they allegedly saw Carlos Salazar Cruz walking away from the crime scene, stopped their vehicle and jumped out to apprehend him, police said.
When he saw the officers, Cruz allegedly ran for a short distance before being tackled to the ground by Chu and arrested at 9:21 p.m., Chu said. By 9:25 p.m., the witness had made a positive ID of the allegedly blood-covered, drunken Cruz as the suspect, Chu said.
That bit of quick, critical police work was essential for the department to be able to find and arrest Cruz, according to Chu and Deputy Inspector Brian Maguire.
“Due to the quick response and subsequent apprehension of this man, we are honoring Officers Vasquez and Chu tonight,” Maguire said at the June 9 barbecue. “When we got the call, we had the man in handcuffs five minutes later.”
Quick decision-making contributed to the officers’ effectiveness, Chu said.
“When we showed up the witness told us, ‘There’s the victim, there’s the guy.’ I had to decide whether to help the victim or go after him. If I stop him and help the victim, we’ll never get him,” Chu said. “It’s a tough decision because I’m driving so I basically run the show. I could have said, ‘Let’s help the victim,’ but I decided to catch the guy before he could get away.”
But Maguire said Chu and Vasquez could not accept all the praise for Cruz’s quick arrest. He and Chu said the case against the accused murderer was strengthened greatly by the cooperation of the anonymous witness.
“We’re lucky. We had a good witness who basically was willing to help and ID the perp. A lot of times people don’t even call, but if they do call they won’t cooperate 100 percent or ID them,” Chu said. “If we didn’t have the witness, we definitely had very good circumstantial evidence, but the witness hit the nail on the head.”
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
