Cop of the Month honored for church burglary arrest
Local houses of worship’s prayers may have been answered, thanks to a collar made by a 72nd Precinct cop, who snagged Cop of the Month honors at the January 72nd Precinct Community Council meeting.
The arrest by Police Officer Elvis Merizalde, who caught up with the suspect as he emerged from a church at 59th Street and Eighth Avenue with two laptops that had been stolen from the building on Thursday, December 18 at approximately 2:35 a.m., may represent a breakthrough in the local church burglary epidemic, according to cops, who said they are waiting on DNA evidence to come back to see if the suspect can be connected to other church burglaries in the area.
According to Captain Thomas Ng, since November of last year, a pattern of individuals breaking into churches has occurred. “In this burglary pattern, we had a total of 14 cases that we investigated,” said Ng, who said the 72nd Precinct alone had five such incidents. “We commend Officer Merizalde.”