Two NYPD officers have been suspended without pay following the escape of a handcuffed prisoner in lower Manhattan that forced the shutdown of subway trains in the area as police hunted the suspect.
NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said the two officers failed to safeguard the prisoner, who had been arrested on suspicion of shoplifting at a Gap, and that they will be disciplined severely.
Thursday night's caper was the latest in a recent string of prisoners escaping NYPD custody, and Bratton reiterated Friday that such an embarrassment, as he called it in previous cases, would not be tolerated. The officers' guns and badges were removed for the 30-day suspension; they will undergo re-training and a transfer. Their careers will be impacted by the lapse, Bratton said.
"What we have here is a significant neglect of duty," Bratton said. NYPD Chief of Department James O'Neill called it a case of "carelessness on the part of our cops."
The officers were taking the suspect, identified as 20-year-old Barry Tune, to a stationhouse in a police cruiser shortly after 7 p.m. when Tune faked being sick, police said. At least one of the officers got out of the vehicle to assist the suspect, and he opened the back door and bolted for the Franklin Street subway station in TriBeCa, still handcuffed. Police said the suspect had managed to wriggle out of at least one of his handcuffs before getting out of the vehicle.
No. 1 train service was suspended in both directions south of West 14th Street while police investigated, and No. 2 and 3 train service was temporarily suspended between Times Square and Wall Street. Tune was apprehended at what police describe as a group home in Sunset Park, Brooklyn about five hours later.
He was taken back to a police precinct for processing. It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney, nor was it known if he would face additional charges associated with the escape. Tune was expected to face a judge for arraignment Friday.
Tune is the sixth prisoner to escape NYPD custody since June. On Oct. 20, Gerald Brooks -- who had five warrants and 54 past arrests -- escaped custody in Brooklyn while he was handcuffed behind his back.
He was captured and arrested Dec. 2.
In August, a woman who claimed to be pregnant fled in handcuffs from a hospital. The month before, a prisoner ran barefoot from his cell at a Manhattan police station, and another man escaped as officers were escorting him into a different police precinct. A man escaped in June when a handcuffed man shoved a police officer and took off, but he was caught about a month later. The other three suspects were caught within days of their escapes, police said.
