New York firefighter Angel Valerio has been charged with attacking and trying to mug an unidentified, off-duty member of the NYPD, reports the New York Daily News. Valerio or one of his three friends allegedly punched the officer after encountering him on the street following a Sunday night of drinking at a Forest Hills T.G.I. Friday’s. (Why they punched him is unclear.) “The whole thing started off as a fight,” a source told the Daily News. Unfortunately, it didn’t end there. The victim actually managed to identify himself as a cop and walked away, but the group followed him down the street, jumped him again, and unsuccessfully attempted to steal his backpack and gun. The officer got away for a second time and went to a nearby hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries. Valerio was arrested and released on bail, though he has been suspended from the FDNY and could face seven years in prison if convicted of robbery, assault, and attempted criminal possession of a weapon; his co-assailants were still at large as of Friday.
