Retired NYPD chief busts two teen suspects in his own backyard: ‘He doesn’t play’

The retired head of the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau jumped back in action long enough Wednesday to collar two pill-toting teens at gunpoint who were trespassing in his yard, according to police sources and witnesses.

Joseph Reznick, 72, a former deputy police commissioner who ran the IAB before he was pushed out in 2022, held the 15- and 17-year-old males in his yard on 89th Ave in Bellerose, Queens, after they jumped his fence, sources told The Post.

When officers arrived at the scene a little after 8 p.m., they found the kids also had 10 oxycodone pills, sources said.

Neighbors said the kids were part of a group of five teens who were walking down the road just before the ordeal.

Two of the kids wore ski masks over their faces, and residents said they suspected the group was up to no good.

“I saw it, and I said it doesn’t look right,” said a neighbor who declined to give his name.

“They were walking in the street, talking,” he said. “I didn’t see them anymore. Then I see a bicycle go flying past, then I see the lights and cops.”

The young group hid in another neighbor’s backyard, the resident said. When the cops rolled by, three kids took off down the road, while two jumped Reznick’s fence.

“He’s got cameras all over the place,” the neighbor said of the former chief.

“He went out, he had his gun, and they stayed there,” the resident said. “One of the kids … said they came from Queens Village and they were down the block and somebody pulled a knife on them and they ran.”

The police nabbed three of the kids east of Reznick’s house. And they found the retired chief with the other two.

“That’s scary,” neighbor Ashan Ali said. “We don’t see stuff like this. … That’s wild.”

“That’s the lieutenant’s house,” he said, referring to Reznick. “He doesn’t play.”