A retired New York City police officer announced his intent to sue his brothers in blue after his efforts to stop a shoplifter left him arrested and charged with “the same thing.”
After 20 years with the NYPD, 50-year-old Salvatore Lopiccolo retired in 2022 and took a job as a security guard with Allied Security who placed him at the Port Authority Bus Terminal Walgreens. Speaking with the New York Post, he detailed the March 30 incident that has him intending to sue the Port Authority Police Department (PAPD).
“You’re charging us both the same thing here?” Lopiccolo had asked the PAPD sergeant after learning he was facing two counts of assault, one count of attempted assault and another for harassment. “I tackled somebody. I have visible injuries. Look at my face.”
“He [the sergeant] goes, ‘His back hurts.’ I didn’t know what to say to that,” the guard explained. “So they processed me, they fingerprinted me. All the Port Authority cops are apologizing to me…they couldn’t believe it.”
According to the retired cop, a known shoplifter had entered the store that day and allegedly filled a bag with snacks. In response, Lopiccolo said he escorted the man out without confiscating the ill-gotten merchandise on the condition that he not return.
Hours later, the suspect did just that at which point cellphone footage provided to the Post captured the altercation that left Lopiccolo in cuffs.
Seen wrestling over a bag and arguing whether it contained stolen chips, the suspect then appeared to take a swing at the guard before fleeing out the door. At that point, the former cop grabbed the suspect from behind and wrestled him to the ground while telling the person filming to get the cops.
At that time, according to a notice of claim alleging retaliation and unjust arrest, the guard explained that he had been placed in a cell for over seven hours and charged supposedly because he had told the arresting officers he thought the suspect needed mental health treatment and it was a waste to prosecute.
“I don’t want to waste Port Authorities’ time, mine, Walgreens and the courts for somebody who’s going to get out of jail in a couple of hours or possibly a day and come back into the store and do the same thing,” he explained to the Post. “I think this guy needs services.”
Lopiccolo’s civil attorney John Scola said by charging his client the PAPD sent a “clear message that violent criminals will be treated better than those who protect innocent workers from daily violence.”
“My client, a retired NYPD officer, is the only defense between violent, emotionally disturbed shoplifters and the employees of Walgreens,” he added.
Until such time that charges are dropped against the former cop, he noted that he remained unable to work having had to surrender his firearm.
Lopiccolo’s report alleging a miscarriage of justice is the latest example in a slew of similar incidents. More recently, 57-year-old parking garage attendant Moussa Diarra had been hit with charges that included attempted murder after he defended his own life by disarming an alleged thief who had just shot him and returning fire. Public outrage led to District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office announcing they were declining to prosecute “pending further investigation.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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