NYPD misidentifies suspect in Brooklyn mugging
Cops on Tuesday identified the man they said dragged a woman and punched her during a caught-on-video mugging in Brooklyn — only to be forced to walk it back hours later when they figured out they had the wrong guy.
Jeffrey Evans was actually behind bars on Riker’s Island on an unrelated case on Sept. 28, the day of the mugging in Fort Greene.
“He has a very good alibi,” the NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence & Counterterrorism John Miller told The Post Tuesday night. “The City of New York was his alibi. Now we gotta back up and find out who can tell us who this guy is.”
Miller said Evans, 55, was initially picked out of a photo array by a witness — leading cops to publicly finger him in the mugging.
Evan’s lawyer slammed the debacle, including Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, who went on TV Tuesday morning to drag Evans over the heartless attack.
“This is another failed attempt by Commissioner Shea to manufacture a causal relationship between recently enacted bail laws and ‘public safety’ where none exists,” Legal Aid Society attorney Luis Martinez said.
“Instead of admitting that it is his police force with its bloated personnel and budget that is failing New Yorkers,” Martinez said. “Shea, predictably, is looking for a scapegoat. The fearmongering and blatant lies peddled by Commissioner Shea and others in law enforcement to undermine the bail reforms, laws that are keeping New Yorkers safe from the source of Rikers Island, must come to an end.”
Shean said on Fox 5’s “Good Day New York” on Tuesday that Evans had 11 open court cases when he targeted the woman in broad daylight at St. Edwards and Willoughby streets at 4:40 p.m. on Sept. 28.
“One side will say as long as he shows up at court then everything is working well,” the top cop said. “And I would say that everything is not working well. They forget the victims that are going through the pain of incidents like that, and how much damage one person could do. So that’s a complete and utter failure in my book.”
As the commissioner has done in the past, he pointed the finger at the state bail reform law that went into effect last year that’s kept many arrestees out of jail.
“This is what happens when you upend the system too drastically without the input of law enforcement,” he said on 1010 WINS. “You wouldn’t, you know, bring your car to the mechanic and tell the mechanic what to do. You have to listen to law enforcement when it’s dealing with these criminal justice changes, and I think you’re seeing the results when that didn’t happen.”
Video released last week shows the victim running into the street to avoid the now-unidentified attacker — who runs after her.
A struggle ensues in the middle of the street, as the suspect repeatedly yanks at the purse, but the plucky victim refuses to give it up.
The suspect is shown socking the woman in the face and dragging her back onto the sidewalk, where the struggle continues.
The woman ultimately held onto her purse, and the suspect got back on his bike and pedaled off.
Several people passed on the street and sidewalk as the suspect wrestled with the victim, including two people who stood feet away as the incident unfolded.
The victim, who suffered pain and swelling to her face, as well as back pain and cuts on her body, was taken to the Brooklyn Hospital Center in stable condition.
Now cops are back to square one to find the brute.