61st Precinct’s ‘Cop Of The Month’ Honored At Community Council Meeting

A local police officer was honored on Wednesday at the 61st Precincts’ Community Council meeting for an arrest he made on two men who were in possession of loaded firearms.

Police officer Christopher Collazo was awarded the 61 precincts’ cop of the month award. He was also awarded citations from the offices of several local politicians.

“After we arrested the two individuals we had to debrief them to figure out why they carried these guns,” Winston Faison, a New York Police Department Deputy Inspector, said. “And he [Collazo] stopped an eminent shooting. One guy had a gun and he said he was waiting for another guy to come and he was going to shoot him at night.”

Collazo and his anti-crime team observed 10 males smoking marijuana and trespassing in the parking garage on Kings Highway and E. 13th Street and arrested the two men for smoking marijuana only to find them both armed and in possession of two big bags of marijuana.

Police declined to comment on the actual size of the bag. One suspect had a loaded .22 caliber revolver and another male was in possession of a loaded nine-millimeter handgun. Both men were charged with criminal possession of a weapon.

The local pols who honored him included City Councilman Alan Maisel, Assemblywoman Jaime Williams, Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz State Senator Roxanne Persaud and State Senator Martin Golden’s office. Collazo, a four-year veteran, was humbled by the recognition and said it was part of the job but the recognition did feel “fantastic.” However, he expressed the arrest does have some significance to his career.

“This is the biggest arrest I have ever made,” Collazo said. “At anytime when someone is armed you always want to make sure you can get the arrest without an altercation happening.”

Careful not to detail too much information about the case, he did credit the help of his anti-crime unit officers with the arrest he was able to make.

“I couldn’t have done it without them,” he said. “It’s difficult to pull an arrest like that with so many [suspects] and some of them armed without an altercation taking place by yourself.”

Recognition aside, Collazo is pleased to have been apart of the community council meeting this month. He said it gives the community an opportunity to see police fight crime with preventive work.