By Matthew Chayes
Newsday (New York)
LONG BEACH, NY — Two off-duty New York City police officers, and a third man, beat up a local firefighter who objected when the men made a rude remark to the firefighter’s sister outside a row of bars on a Long Beach street, the Long Beach city manager said yesterday in announcing the cops’ arrests.
Long Beach authorities say the NYPD officers — both assigned to the 101st Precinct in nearby Far Rockaway — punched the off-duty Long Beach firefighter and kicked him as his 22-year-old sister watched Saturday morning around 4 a.m., City Manager Charles T. Theofan said.
When the firefighter, Brian McNamara, 32, ran from the attack on West Beech Street and Virginia Avenue, the assailants followed him across the street and beat him again, Theofan said.
Theofan said police don’t know the identity of the third man, who is still at large, or whether he is a police officer. There were originally four to five people in the group but only three participated in the assault, Theofan said.
At one point, a bystander, Andrew Romanelli, 27, of Long Beach, went to help McNamara, Theofan said. It was unclear whether he was injured.
Long Beach cops later found the assailants, with the sister’s assistance, a few blocks away from where the beatings took place, Theofan said. They were covered in blood, he said.
The two officers — Douglas Rome, 25, and Jason Ragoo, 26 — surrendered yesterday to be fingerprinted, photographed, and charged with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, Theofan said.
A spokesman for the Nassau District Attorney’s Office confirmed the two officers had been arrested and the charges against them.
An NYPD spokesman confirmed Rome and Ragoo were suspended without pay and their guns were confiscated.
McNamara and his sister did not know anyone in the group outside the bar, authorities said. Reached yesterday, the sister declined to comment.
McNamara, who was taken to the hospital and later released, still has his eye swollen shut, authorities said.
Charges against the two could be upgraded based on McNamara’s condition, Theofan said.
Rome, of Rose Avenue in Floral Park, and Ragoo, of East Beech Street in Long Beach, are to be given court-appearance tickets and arraigned today in Long Beach City Court, authorities said.
A spokesman for the NYPD police union, Al O’Leary, said union attorneys would be representing Rome and Ragoo at the arraignment.
Copyright 2008, Newsday