An off-duty police officer is being hailed a hero after he saved a woman’s life in Queens, chasing down her knife-wielding attacker while he was barefoot.
Port Authority police officer Giovanni Urena was asleep in his apartment in Corona following a midnight shift when he was awakened by a woman screaming for help.
He jumped out of bed, looked out his window, saw the woman bleeding and saw a knife-wielding man next to her, officials said. Urena threw on a pair of pants and chased the suspect down 39th Street without shoes.
After a brief chase, Urena arrested the man, later identified as 61-year-old Benito Abreu. A pedestrian called the NYPD, who then took Abreu into custody. Police said he is charged with second-degree assault, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon.
The 31-year-old woman suffered from serious stab wounds to her back, but she is expected to survive. It wasn’t clear why the suspect attacked her.
