Police arrested two men who allegedly interfered with police helicopters in separate incidents: one who allegedly flew a drone and the other who allegedly shone a high-powered laser into the eyes of the pilot.
In the first incident, Daniel Parris, 26, aimed a laser at the eyes of two helicopter pilots hovering over a schoolyard in Queens last Wednesday evening, police said.
The pilots saw Parris, standing near a woman, child and a small dog, at about 9:30 p.m. on 162nd Street and 86th Avenue in Queens, police said.
“I put the helicopter in hover and all of a sudden I see, out of the corner of my eye, a bright green light that illuminated the cockpit,” one of the pilots, Police Officer Tarek Otero, said Tuesday in a statement. “I told my partner: ‘We’ve just been lasered … They are directly under us in the street. Stop that big guy right there.'”
Otero, who has been with the NYPD for 22 years, was looking for an assault suspect at the time with his partner, Officer Michael Porcheddu, police said. They were about 750 feet up in the air, police said.
Parris was charged with reckless endangerment, menacing, and obstructing governmental administration. He was released on bail and is next due in court on October 8. A six-inch-long laser device was recovered from his pocket, police said.
Parris has one prior arrest, for a 2007 robbery in Queens, police said.
In the second incident, a 34-year-old man was arrested for flying a small drone withing 50 feet of a helicopter flying about 800 feet off the ground, police said.
Isaac Rosa flew the white drone, equipped with a GoPro camera, in front of the pilots as they were trying to search the neighborhood for a missing person, police said. They had to call off the search to avoid colliding with the drone.
Police followed the drone until it landed in Rosa’s Bushwick backyard.
Rosa was charged with several offenses, including reckless endangerment and obstructing governmental administration, police said. He was held on bail at his arraignment and is next due in court on Nov. 13.
Rosa and Parris could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday evening. The Queens DA declined to comment.
