NEW YORK – A police officer in New York City resorted to an old-fashioned method of chasing down a suspect — riding horseback.
The encounter on Saturday was captured on the police officer’s body camera and was posted to Twitter by the New York Police Department.
A 60-year-old vendor in Manhattan told police that a man stole seven pairs of sunglasses from his vending station near Times Square at about 6:45 p.m. EDT on Saturday, WNBC-TV reported.
The vendor confronted the alleged thief, later identified as Ignacio Lewis, 34, but the man brandished a piece of glass “in a threatening manner,” WABC-TV reported.
The suspect ran away from that area, according to the television station. In the body cam video posted by the NYPD, the officer on horseback is speaking to the man (there is no audio), but the suspect quickly turns and begins to run away, WNBC reported.
The officer pursues the suspect at a full gallop, and two officers soon helped horse collar the alleged thief and arrested him, according to WABC.
Lewis was taken into custody and charged with robbery, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon, WNBC reported.
“All of your NYPD officers are involved in crime reduction, even the four-legged ones,” the NYPD wrote on Twitter.
Lewis is being represented by a public defender at the Legal Aid Society, CNN reported. Redmond Haskins, the director of media relations for Legal Aid, told the news outlet that they had “no comment” on the case.
