An NYPD officer who was dragged for more than two blocks over the weekend was fighting for his life on Monday as police charged two women and prepared to charge a teen in the incident.
Officer Dalsh Veve, 35, remained in critical condition after undergoing surgery on Sunday morning, hours after he was dragged by a stolen car in East Flatbush just before midnight, police and Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
Veve, a nine-year veteran of the force, had responded to reports of shots fired (which turned out to be fireworks) and was talking to four people inside a black Honda sedan near the corner of Tilden Avenue and East 53rd Street when the car suddenly sped off, NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said after the incident.
Veve, who has a 2-year-old daughter, was dragged for two-and-a-half blocks and around the corner before he fell onto the street and his fellow officers picked him up and took him to Kings County Hospital. Police believe he may have been holding onto the door of the car at some point.
While being dragged, Veve was able to get off two shots, apparently hitting the 15-year-old driver in the face, O’Neill said Sunday. Shortly after, that boy walked into Brookdale Hospital and remained intubated on Monday with charges pending, said Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce. He was on probation for another incident, but the nature of that incident was not immediately clear.
A pair of young women — 18-year-old Jeronda Oliver and 19-year-old Eboni Clinton — were charged with hindering prosecution, police said. A fourth person in the car, a 17-year-old man, was cooperating with police “and gives us most of the narrative that we have right now,” Boyce said. He was not expected to be charged.
De Blasio called the incident a “dastardly act” and said Veve’s wife has been by his side.
“He is a strong man physically and mentally and we are all praying that that strength is going to see him through in this very difficult moment,” de Blasio said, speaking at an unrelated news conference on Monday with O’Neill. “Officer Veve represents the American dream: an immigrant child able to join the greatest police force in the world and destined for future leadership.”
O’Neill said Veve took initiative when he saw something that didn’t look right, calling him a “courageous man.”
“This is an extremely trying time for everyone, for his family and his friends and all the men and women of the New York City Police Department,” O’Neill said on Monday, adding that Veve is a “remarkable man, remarkable cop.”
City Councilman Mathieu Eugene said he knows Veve and his family from Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, where they once shared a neighborhood.
“I hope that he’s going to be OK,” he said after visiting Veve on Sunday.
With Nicole Brown
