Teens Charged With Beating 2 Off-Duty Cops Who Told Them To Quiet Down

Four Brooklyn teenagers have been charged with beating two off-duty NYPD officers after the cops asked them to stop jumping on cars.

According to the Brooklyn DA's office, Detective Daniel Alessandrino walked out of his Bensonhurst apartment shortly after midnight on February 8 to confront a group of "15 to 20 teenagers, mostly males, making a lot of noise and banging and jumping on cars." Alessandrino was followed by his girlfriend, Officer Jaline Bernier.

The detective told the teenagers that he "didn't want any trouble," and asked them to leave; according to a release from the DA's office, 17-year-old Joseph Nacmias, replied, “What are you going to do? Call a cop?” After telling Nacmias that in fact he and Bernier were police officers, Nacmias allegedly replied, “I don’t care. I’ll kill a cop. A cop is going to die tonight.”

According to the indictment, Detective Alessandrino and Officer Bernier were then beaten by the group of teens, and Alessandrino was knocked to the ground "and surrounded by the teens, who then kicked, punched and stomped on him." Bernier's eye and face were swollen; Alessandrino had cuts on his eye, nose, head, arm, and knee, and suffered broken teeth and bruising on his body.

Jason Chalhon, Vito Morgera, Michael Peterson, all 17 years old, were arrested along with Nacmias a short time after the assault. All the teenagers are from Mill Basin, Brooklyn, and are charged with assault, resisting arrest, and possession of marijuana; the most serious count carries a penalty of up to 7 years in prison.

Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson has gone on something of a PR offensive in recent weeks, with lengthy profiles in the Times and New York Magazine seeking to combat the perception that the indictment of NYPD Officer Peter Liang in the slaying of Akai Gurley is a racial matter, and burnish his reputation as a reformer and "a black kid who got the chance for a better life among all sorts of different people."

“These teenagers allegedly attacked two off-duty Police Officers who identified themselves and simply asked the teens - in the early hours of a Sunday morning - to stop jumping on cars and making a lot of noise in a residential neighborhood," Thompson said in a statement. "We will now seek to hold them accountable for their conduct.”