A Manhattan man was arrested on Long Island in the early hours of Thursday for allegedly stabbing an off-duty NYPD officer who tried to stop a car break-in, authorities said.
Royal Hooks, 27, was charged with second-degree felony assault and misdemeanor petit larceny, a Suffolk County Police Department spokesperson told the Daily News.
The incident unfolded shortly after 1 a.m. in Lindenhurst. Two off-duty NYPD officers saw a male suspect getting into a parked vehicle in a driveway on 40th Street off Buffalo Avenue.
When the officers approached the man, he tried to flee on foot and started running away, officials said. They caught up with him “several hundred yards down the block,” when he stabbed one of the officers in the left leg.
The NYPD officers detained the suspect and called for backup. He was subsequently arrested by Suffolk County Police and processed at the First Precinct. He is expected to be arraigned in Central Islip court later on Thursday.
The 28-year-old injured officer was taken to a nearby hospital to be treated for a serious but non-life-threatening injury, the SCPD spokesperson said.
