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Three cops honored for performance

January 27, 2012 Helen Klein

BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/Photo by Helen Klein

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A trio of police officers assigned to the 68th Precinct was inthe spotlight, earlier this month, clinching cop of the monthhonors for their heroic actions.

At the January meeting of the precinct’s community council, held inthe station house on 65th Street near Third Avenue, Captain RichardDiBlasio, the precinct’s commanding officer, praised the three fortheir top-notch police work, noting that it had resulted in somevery good arrests, which help reduce crime by taking criminalsoff the streets. They are doing it in a very safe manner.

P.O. Vito Viola was honored for his arrest of a man with a loadedfirearm. The individual in question had threatened a woman in theearly morning hours of December 30; after she called 911, Viola andother precinct officers had responded, canvassing the area around14th Avenue and Bay Ridge Avenue where the incident hadoccurred.

The alleged perpetrator was spotted by Viola, and ran from him, butViola succeeded in apprehending him. He used tremendousrestraint, said DiBlasio, who also pointed out that, in so doing,A loaded firearm was removed off the streets.

P.O. Yuroslav Shvartsman snagged cop of the month honors for hisarrest of a man implicated in a Christmas Day shooting that hadarisen from a dispute between a group of men and two other men whohad approached them.

During a canvass after the incident, Shvartsman had recognized thealleged shooter, stopped him and frisked him, recovering a loadedstolen firearm, said DiBlasio, who pointed out, What policeofficers do is when everyone else is running away, we run righttoward the danger. That is exactly what P.O. Shvartsman did.

Finally, Sergeant Christopher McGibbon was honored, explainedDiBlasio, Not for just one incident but for the great work he hasdone being a supervisor and leader of police officers in his unitand thus, the whole command. In 2011, said DiBlasio, theseven-person anticrime unit McGibbon leads, made approximately 345arrests.

That’s incredible, DiBlasio stressed. Sergeant McGibbon and hisleadership are a big part of keeping crime down and keeping thecommunity safe.