Off-duty NYPD officer assaulted by group of men at Penn Station, officials say

Investigators with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority police were looking for a group of men who allegedly assaulted an off-duty NYPD officer after he got off from an LIRR train last Saturday in Penn Station, officials said Thursday.

The incident unfolded at about 6:30 a.m. after the 33-year-old victim exited a train which came on the Ronkonkoma line and got into an altercation with a group of up to eight other men, MTA Police Department spokesman Aaron Donovan said.

Initially the victim had an exchange of words with the others which escalated into a fight which left him with cuts to the face, ear and arm that required treatment at New York Presbyterian Hospital, according to Donovan.

After the fight, the suspects fled the station and were being sought by MTA police, Donovan said. Officials said they did not know what the fight was all about.

Neither Donovan nor a spokesman for the NYPD would confirm the identity of the injured officer, who records show lives in Queens.  A law enforcement source who didn’t want to be identified said the officer didn’t identify himself as a police officer during the altercation as had been originally reported in some media accounts.

A separate law enforcement source said the assailants started hassling the off-duty-cop on the train, knocking off his hat and striking his backpack.

Officials said the MTA police were still looking for the suspects as of Thursday afternoon.

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.comtonynewsday

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.