A reputed gang member who was freed without bail despite attempted-murder charges allegedly went on a crime spree that included dragging an NYPD officer with a car Friday — enraging the city’s top cop.
“NYC: @NYPDDetectives are AGAIN searching for Takim Newson after he used a car to assault a police officer early this morning,” Police Commissioner Dermot Shea tweeted Friday afternoon.
Newson, 32, allegedly ran amok for nearly 12 hours after cops approached him behind the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz with excessively tinted windows that was blocking traffic near Rockaway Parkway and Willmohr Street in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn at around 3:30 a.m., sources said.
When a cop tried to pull Newson out of the car — which is believed to be owned by his girlfriend — he allegedly shifted into reverse and hit the gas, dragging the cop a short distance before getting away, sources said.
The unidentified officer suffered a back injury and bruising to his knees and elbows, and was taken to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn for treatment, sources said.
About 90 minutes later, Newson allegedly broke into a house nearly 15 miles away on Grassmere Terrace in Far Rockaway, where he smashed his way inside by breaking the lock on the door, sources said.
The ex-con and reputed member of the Edgemere Crew gang allegedly threatened a 66-year-old woman by pretending he had a gun in his pocket but left without taking anything after the cops tracked him there, sources said.
The woman said Newson’s girlfriend and her mother have been living in her basement since they fell on hard times last year.
“I thought I was opening my home up to someone who was in need,” she said. “It turned into hell. A living nightmare.”
While Newson was allegedly hiding out there, “he threw the plants around at me and my son,” she said, adding, “It was scary. It was very scary.”
Newson then made his way on foot to nearby Beach 13th Street, where he allegedly stole a green Jaguar S-Type sedan at around 5:30 a.m., sources said. The owner of the luxury ride left it running to warm up before heading to work.
Newson was finally caught at around 3 p.m. by Suffolk County cops on Long Island, where his father is believed to reside, after the stolen car’s license plates triggered an electronic reader, sources said.
Earlier this month, prosecutors sought to have Newson locked up without bail to await trial in a Valentine’s Day bar shooting and attempted robbery in Queens. Newson went on the run following that incident and was tracked down at his mom’s home in Rocky Mount, NC.
But during his April 7 arraignment, rookie Queens Judge Denise Johnson — who was rated “not approved” by the city Bar Association before her election November — put him back on the streets without any surety, even though his defense lawyer said $50,000 bail would be “appropriate.”
A spokesman for the state court system declined to comment on Shea’s tweet, referring back to an earlier statement in which he said Johnson believed that “the least restrictive form of bail as is required by the law, was supervised release.”
Newson’s lawyer, Jason Russo, said he was heading to Long Island to represent him.
