NYPD Officer Credited With Remotely Stopping Crime In Wisconsin While Watching Periscope
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The NYPD is always reminding us, "If you see something, say something" – even if that something happens to be in another state.
This past weekend, one NYPD officer lived by the motto, and remotely stopped a crime that was happening all the way in Wisconsin.
As CBS2's Tracee Carrasco reported, NYPD Officer Gregory Santora works to keep the streets of Brooklyn safe. He was off duty on Saturday morning when he came across some disturbing video.
"I came across this video of this individual. It has the hashtag, 'Police killed my brother; RIP Tony Robinson, I'm gonna lose it bro,' and it caught my attention," Santora said.
Santora and his 5-year-old daughter had been browsing the live video streaming app Periscope, looking for videos of people at Disney World, when Santora came across the vide.
"I'm not playing man, the first one of the (expletive) officers I see," the man said in the video Santora spotted.
Police said the stream threatening the lives of police officers came from Raynarldo Glenn, 27, in Madison, Wisconsin. In the stream, he also detailed as plan of suicide by cop, police said.
It was allegedly an act of revenge for the 2015 death of an unarmed black man. Tony Robinson, 19, was fatally shot by a police officer in Wisconsin during an altercation.
"When it came to a point where he started to arm himself with what appeared to be firearms, then I realized that, you know, I couldn't just watch the video anymore," Officer Santora said. "I had to take action."
Santora searched the internet for a phone number to contact police in Wisconsin.
"I made sure I identified myself as an off-duty police officer. I gave my tax and my shield number. Now, there's no way for them to know I was a police officer, but I didn't want them to think it was a hoax," Santora said. "I explained to them what I saw, I sent them links to the video; screenshots, and I just wanted to let them know what was going on because I thought danger was imminent."
The Madison Police Department immediately put out an alert to their officers, warning them about Glenn. An officer eventually caught up to Glenn in front of a hospital, where he was arrested.
Police allegedly found two guns and a knife in Glenn's possession.
"I'm just glad I was able to do the right thing," Santora said.
And no one was more thankful than the chief of the Madison Police Department.
"We've only got 470 officers, but each and every one of them owes him a big debt of gratitude, and I'm at the top of the list," said Madison police Chief Michael C. Koval.
Glenn was in court Tuesday for a pretrial hearing. He is facing felony charges for alleged threats to law enforcement and terrorist threats.
