City Officials Honor Volunteer Cops For Bravery In Making Halloween Weekend Arrests

The 61st Precinct’s Community Council celebrated Veterans Day by honoring two auxiliary police officers who arrested a group of teenage hoodlums allegedly involved in an attempted robbery that occurred over Halloween weekend.

The precinct’s commanding officer, Captain Winston Faison, praised the volunteer cops for the arrests, even though the officers were unarmed.

“Normally, we tell our auxiliary officers not to get involved in making arrests,” he said. “But if these suspects had not been apprehended, there would have been another robbery, and another and another. They saved other potential victims from being robbed.”

The two officers, Ray Santiago and Vitaly Molnar, arrested five teenagers who had attempted to rob a 14-year-old boy in Kelly Park on the Friday before Halloween. The group allegedly surrounded the victim and went through his pockets to steal his phone. The teens came up empty handed and were later arrested by the two officers when they canvassed the area.

The Santiago and Molnar were showered with awards for bravery and service by elected officials, including City Councilmen Chaim Deutsch and Alan Maisel, Senators Martin Golden and Diane Savino, and Assemblymembers Steven Cymbrowitz and Roxanne Persaud (Recently elected to the State Senate).

Deutsch commended the precinct’s auxiliary force for their essential role in keeping the community safe.

“The auxiliary officers are all volunteers. You don’t do it for the fame or the fortune, you do it for the community,” he said. “You are truly the backbone of any precinct because you teach us about service and helping others.”

Faison reported that the 61st Precinct’s auxiliary force, at 151 members, is the largest of any station house in New York City. He said the work of the volunteer cops, combined with the other officers, was responsible for bringing down crime across the neighborhood. Out of the city’s 77 police precinct’s, the 61st had the third greatest decrease in crime, Faison said.

The precinct also awarded “Cop of the Month” to Officer Philip DiSanto for apprehending a homicide suspect a week after a murder outside the Sheepshead Bay/Nostrand Houses. Faison said his officer spent hours camped outside the residence looking for the suspect. When DiSanto spotted his target leaving one of the buildings, he noticed the butt of a gun sticking out of the perp’s waistband. DiSanto was able to make the arrest and recover the weapon without incident, Faison said.

“To catch a person with a gun who was involved a murder a week after it happened is unheard of,” said Faison. “If it weren’t for that arrest, this gun probably would have done so much damage to so many families.”

Faison said DiSanto’s partner caught another suspect involved in the homicide the next week.

Councilman Mark Treyger showed up at the community council meeting to praise the work of the volunteer cops and the rest of the police officers at the 61st Precinct, who he said accomplish a lot with few resources.

“Precincts like the 61st sometimes become victims of their own success. Historically, officers have often been moved out of this area to work in other crime hotspots. The officers do so much with so little and they never complain. I want to commend every stakeholder in the 61st Precinct, including the auxiliary, the officers, the community council, and everyone else who volunteers their time to help the police,” he said.