Big Apple cops took almost a half-hour to respond to a rowdy Queens car meet-up where a local couple was beaten by a mob of cowardly thugs because they had their hands full on other calls, police said.
But it won’t happen again, an NYPD spokesperson said Monday.
Police brass said it will be stepping up patrols in the Malba neighborhood “to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” one day after dozens of hoodlums converged on 141st Street and South Drive early Sunday morning for a street “takeover” that left a parked car in flames and neighbors in the hospital.
The NYPD said it had several higher-priority calls Sunday, which delayed their response to wild Queens car meet-up. X / @VickieforNYC
“The 109 [Precinct] covers a large geographical area, and this was a busy Saturday night,” the department said in a statement. “At the time of the incident in question, other units from the 109 were handling multiple priority jobs, including an arrest for an individual who was driving intoxicated, transporting someone to the hospital, an assault, and a vehicle collision with injuries.”
The chaos unfolded around 12:30 a.m. Sunday, when a crew of out-of-control drivers showed up uninvited and began screeching wheels in the street and driving over neighborhood lawns.
When local resident Blake Ferrer came out and told them to “get the f–k off my property,” the punks turned on him and pummeled him mercilessly in a cowardly caught-on-video attack.
The crowd even struck Ferrer’s wife, then lit a car on fire and took off, police said.
Blake Ferrer tried to get the car meet-up thugs off his lawn and they pounced on him and his wife, he said. Obtained by NY Post
City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino was livid over the rowdy Queens car meet-up and assault on locals residents. James Messerschmidt
Cops got the first 911 call about drag racing around 12:37 a.m., but had officers out on a slew of other crimes that were classified as higher priorities, the department said.
It wasn’t until 12:50 a.m. that the call was upgraded to a higher priority criminal mischief, which sent cops scrambling to the scene of the mayhem after the goons took off.
“It happens pretty regularly. There’s intersections where you can see the tire burns,” said area resident Tanya Piric. “It’s nothing new. It’s terrible. I read that someone reported it to 911 and they were told to call 311. Which is insane. Where’s the security?”
A burned-out car in the aftermath of the early Sunday illegal car meet-up in Malba that left at least two locals injured. David DeTurris / NY Post
Security company boss Larry Rusch, another local, called the scene “insane.
“This group was from the Bronx,” he said.
City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino, who represents the neighborhood, was livid over the illegal street takeover, and complained to The Post that “disgrace is an understatement” for what happened.
However, police brass in the borough met with Paladino and local residents on Sunday, and vowed to increase NYPD patrols in the area to make sure it doesn’t happen.