Decorated ex-Marine and NYPD officer arrested for DWI on Veteran's Day

A decorated former Marine and NYPD officer was arrested for drunk driving early Veterans Day i after getting in an accident and refusing to take a breathalyzer in Queens, police said.

Ismile Althaibani, 29, who served in Fallujah, Iraq, was arrested about 3 a.m. and hospitalized after being charged. Althaibani was the subject of a 2006 story in The New York Times about Muslim servicemen which detailed how he received the Combat Action Ribbon and the Purple Heart after a bomb planted by insurgents exploded under his convoy and destroyed his left foot. When Althaibani returned from Iraq in 2004, he was more withdrawn, "smiled less, and smoked often," according to the story. After his foot healed, he joined the New York City Police Academy.

The Queens District Attorney did not have additional information at press time.

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