A retired NYPD officer working as a Walgreens security guard says he was wrongfully charged with assault after he took down an alleged shoplifter who hit him in the head in a caught-on-video scuffle.
Salvatore Lopiccolo, 50, was seen on cellphone footage wrestling with another man over a canvas bag packed with allegedly stolen food on March 30 outside the store in the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan on March 30.
Lopiccolo told the New York Post on Tuesday that he had spotted the man, identified as 26-year-old homeless man Rahmell Coleman, taking a snack off the shelves earlier that day.
The guard said that instead of taking the food back, he escorted Coleman out of the store and told him not to return.
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Coleman, however, reportedly did return and attempted to leave the store with a canvas bag full of food that he was allegedly stealing.
Lopiccolo stopped Coleman at the door when the scuffle broke out between the men, according to a court filing obtained by the paper. Coleman allegedly whacked the retired officer in the head with the bag of food before Lopiccolo tackled him to the ground.
Lopiccolo suffered a welt above his right eye and told the responding Port Authority police officers that Coleman should receive mental health treatment instead of charges, the report said.
"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," Lopiccolo told the paper.
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Howerver, officers ended up charging both Coleman and Lopiccolo, the report said. Lopiccolo said he has been unable to work as an armed guard since the arrest and is suing the Port Authority Police.
When learning that Coleman failed to show up to his recent court date for assault and harassment charges in connection to the incident, Lopiccolo told the Post that he "knew this would happen."
Coleman has at least five prior arrests, including an incident where he allegedly punched a man multiple times outside Penn Station and took his cellphone, according to the report.
Crime has jumped 44% in New York City since the start of 2022, with many repeat offenders fueling the uptick, according to police statistics.
