By Joe Anuta
The NYPD arrested the 61-year-old Florida man Monday who had been wanted for more than a month after he allegedly struck a police officer with a stolen truck — sparking a wild chase that led to the temporary closure of the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge in late August, police said.
Gary Sarback, of Lake Worth, Fla., was cuffed at about 4 p.m. and charged with attempted murder of a police officer, unauthorized use of a vehicle and criminal possession of a weapon, the NYPD said.
The city’s Finest took Sarback into custody near the corner of 31st Street and Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria, according to cops.
Sarback allegedly first swiped a woman’s pocketbook near the corner of 79th Street and Ditmars Boulevard in the afternoon of Aug. 22, and then hours later when two officers tried to apprehend him, he allegedly hit one of the pair with a stolen pickup truck near the corner of Broadway and Crescent Street as he fled, police said.
Each of the two officers fired a round, authorities said immediately after the incident, and a massive manhunt began for Sarback in western Queens.
Later that night, investigators found the black pickup, which had been reported stolen in the Sunshine State a few days before the Aug. 22 incident, farther south in Long Island City near the corner of 24th Street and 37th Avenue, police said, and Sarback had remained at large until his Monday arrest, according to cops.
Reach reporter Joe Anuta by e-mail at januta@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
