A Jamaica man last week was charged with severely beating an off-duty police officer in a St. Albans supermarket parking lot following an alleged minor dispute minutes earlier in the store that involved the his girlfriend, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
Tommie D. Williams, 27, was arraigned last Friday on multiple counts of second-degree assault and second-degree harassment for the Jan. 19 incident.
According to the charges, a 42-year-old off-duty city cop was shopping at the Pathmark supermarket on Springfield Boulevard when he accidently bumped into Williams’ girlfriend and Williams verbally confronted him. Williams then allegedly told the officer that he would be waiting outside for him.
As the officer finished shopping and was walking to his car in the parking lot approximately five minutes later, Brown said, Williams approached him and punched him in the face, causing the officer to fall to the ground. Williams then allegedly walked away and entered a vehicle. As the officer approached the car and tried to take a cell-phone image of the auto, Williams jumped out and again punched him in the face, causing the cop to fall to the ground. Williams then fled in the vehicle.
The officer suffered three fractures to his face, which required hospitalization and the surgical implantation of a metal plate and metal wires to be placed in his face.
If convicted, Williams faces up to seven years in prison.
