A lawmaker in Queens is proving he’s got instincts not only for passing legislation but also for dealing with the grittier elements in his district.
Ron Kim, the first Korean-American elected to the New York State Legislature, tackled a man suspected of snatching a purse from a mom and held him to the ground until police arrived, according to reports Friday.
Kim was heading to his office in downtown Flushing on Thursday afternoon when he saw a man swipe the woman’s purse from the stroller she was pushing near 37th Avenue. He then joined a Good Samaritan in chasing down the suspect, all the while dialing the police on his cellphone.
Though the man tried to get away by ducking into an office building, exiting wearing different clothes, the Good Samaritan nevertheless spotted the suspect.
The assemblyman, who was a football player in high school, tackled the man while still on his phone.
“I have a 9-month-old baby and all I could think was my wife walking the streets every single day and it happening to her,” Kim told WABC-TV.
The man was taken into custody by police and charged with grand larceny.
Kim told the New York Post he’d never seen anything like that happen in the middle of the day in his district.
“I wanted to make sure he was caught,” Kim told the Post.
