Police: Man Attacked Newsstand Operator, Tried To Grab Cop's Gun In Times Square
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- An 18-year-old Bronx man with a long rap sheet was arrested this past weekend, after he allegedly attacked a newspaper vendor and then tried to rip a police officer's gun from its holster right in Times Square.
The officer and his partner, normally assigned to a precinct in Queens, were part of the NYPD Critical Response Vehicle surge counterterrorism operation in Times Square on Sunday, police said. They were posted at the military recruitment office at 44th Street and Seventh Avenue around 5 a.m.
Around that very moment, suspect Clifford Gamboa ripped off eight bags of Skittles, Swedish Fish, and Sour Patch kids from a corner newsstand and punched the 58-year-old operator in the face, police alleged. The merchant fell and cut his elbow on the ground, police said.
The newsstand operator got up and chased Gamboa as police moved in to investigate, police said.
At that point, Gamboa allegedly lunged for an officer's holstered gun and tried to rip it free, police said. The suspect did not get the gun, and police wrestled him down, at one point pepper-spraying him as he resisted, police alleged.
One officer was treated for pain to his knee and elbow after falling down while wrestling the suspect, police said. The newsstand operator declined medical treatment, police said.
Gamboa was charged with robbery, assault and resisting arrest, police said. He was ordered held on $25,000 bail Sunday evening, police said.
Gamboa has more than 20 prior arrests. He has been accused previously of pulling an elderly woman's neck, jumping a subway turnstile with a fake gun in his waistband, shooting out the windshield of an occupied car with a BB gun, and selling marijuana, police said.
Gamboa is also known, as police put it, for "belligerently hawking rap music albums without a permit to unsuspecting visitors around Times Square." In the scheme, a suspect put a CD into the hands of a mark and asks for his name, and then writes the suspect's name on the CD and demands $10 or more, police said.
"If money is refused, the suspects verbally assail the would-be customers and, if still unsuccessful in making the 'sales,' ultimately snatch back the albums," police explained.
Gamboa has been arrested eight times for the CD sales scheme, most recently at 48th Street and Seventh Avenue on April 25, police said. At that point, he was caught chasing people up and down the sidewalk demanding donations for CDs, police said.
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