By Sadef Ali Kully
A Jamaica man has been charged with assaulting an off-duty NYPD officer in a St. Albans supermarket parking lot following a minor dispute earlier in the store that involved the defendant’s girlfriend, the Queens district attorney said.
Tommie D. Williams, 27, of 140-33 173rd St. is presently awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court on charges of second-degree assault and second-degree harassment, the DA said.
“The defendant is accused of allowing a relatively minor bumping incident in a supermarket – to which he was not even directly involved – to rapidly escalate into a violent assault that resulted in him causing serious physical injury to his victim,” DA Richard Brown said.
According to the criminal complaint, a 42-year-old off-duty officer was shopping at the Pathmark supermarket located at 134-40 Springfield Boulevard Jan. 19, when he accidently bumped into Williams’ girlfriend and Williams verbally confronted him. Williams then allegedly told the officer that he would be waiting outside for him, the complaint said.
As the officer was walking to his car in the parking lot some five minutes after shopping, Williams allegedly approached him and punched him in the face with a closed fist, causing the officer to fall to the ground, the complaint said. Williams then allegedly walked away and entered a vehicle. The officer approached the vehicle and tried to take a photograph with his cellular phone, the complaint said, as Williams exited the vehicle and again punched officer in the face, knocking him to the ground, before fleeing in the vehicle.
The officer suffered three fractures to his face, which required hospitalization and the surgical implantation of a metal plate and metal wires to be placed in his face, the DA said.
If convicted of the charges, Williams faces up to seven years in prison.
Reach Reporter Sadef Ali Kully by e-mail at skully@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4546.
