By Rebecca Henely
A man who allegedly shot at two police officers in Jackson Heights earlier this month was arrested in Manhattan with two guns, counterfeit police materials and chemicals, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
Antonio Olmeda, 53, was arrested Monday in connection with the shooting, Kelly said. He was charged with two counts of attempted murder, criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment Monday night, police said.
“Our officers miraculously escaped injury when their assailant fired at extremely close range, narrowly missing them,” Kelly said in a statement Monday. “Olmeda’s arrest was bittersweet in that it came this morning as the family of Police Officer Peter Figoski prepared for his funeral.”
Figoski was shot and killed Dec. 12 when responding to a home invasion in Brooklyn, police said. North Carolina resident Lamont Pride, 27, was arrested and charged with the shooting.
In the crime Olmeda has been charged with, two officers on patrol in Jackson Heights Dec. 2 at 3:55 p.m. had been alerted by a passerby to a man in disguise who was acting suspiciously, police said.
Officers approached the man — who was wearing a black trench coat, hat, dark glasses and a fake beard as he stood near the corner of 37th Road and 76th Street. When they asked for his identification, the man pulled a revolver out of his coat, fired twice at the officers and ran away southbound on 77th Street, police said.
The unharmed officers were not able to catch him, but they recovered his fake beard, hat and glasses, police said.
The DNA on the glasses led the NYPD to Olmeda, Kelly said. After also linking a 2001 blue Chevrolet Venture van to Olmeda and finding that it had received a summons in Harlem, Inspector Stephen Hughes, commanding officer of the NYPD’s Warrant Section, canvassed the area where the summons had been issued, Kelly said.
Hughes found Olmeda’s van in front of 323 East 116th Street at 4 a.m. Monday, Kelly said. Officers from the NYPD’s apprehension team did surveillance near the van, and four hours later Olmeda was seen on 116th Street. Olmeda entered the van and police caught him, Kelly said.
Officers allegedly found on Olmeda’s person a gun belt, a loaded .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun and two magazines with seven rounds each, Kelly said. In Olmeda’s van they also allegedly found a snub-nosed .38-caliber revolver with three used shell casings, a plastic bin with about 24 bottles of cleaning chemicals, and a fake NYPD parking plaque, Kelly said.
The Emergency Service Unit and Bomb Squad also searched a suspicious package in the van and found a police light and siren package, Kelly said.
Police issued a search warrant at Olmeda’s apartment on 1st Avenue and E 116th Street and found a bullet resistant vest and four more guns: an M-11 firearm with a fully loaded magazine, an AR-15 rifle with 3 fully loaded magazines, a loaded Smith & Wesson .40 caliber handgun and a loaded 9mm Beretta with many rounds of ammunition.
Olmeda had been arrested in 1994 in the Bronx on charges of patronizing a prostitute, and officers then found 25 explosive devices, ammunition and an Uzi submachine gun in his vehicle, Kelly said. He had another run-in with the law in 2002 when he allegedly asked about security at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and was found to be carrying materials to create bombs, Kelly said.
Reach reporter Rebecca Henely by e-mail at rhenely@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4564.
