William Garzon (right) of the Bronx is charged with beating an off-duty police officer in Jackson Heights early Saturday morning. Police are still looking for his accomplice (left), who allegedly put the cop in a chokehold as Garzon pounded away. NYPD
May 22, 2025 By Bill Parry
A Bronx man turned himself in at the 115th Precinct in Jackson Heights for taking part in a beatdown of a good Samaritan who sensed two women were in danger during the early morning hours of Saturday, May 17.
William Garzon, 23, of Gerard Avenue in the Highbridge section, surrendered after seeing an image of himself had been disseminated to the media by the NYPD a day after the attack, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation.
Garzon was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Wednesday on a complaint charging him with assault, strangulation, and harassment after he and an accomplice attacked a 29-year-old man who turned out to be an off-duty police officer assigned to the 32nd Precinct in Harlem.
According to the criminal complaint, the off-duty cop was near the intersection of 81st Street and Northern Boulevard in Jackson Heights just before 4:30 a.m. on Saturday when he watched Garzon with another man and two women getting into a gray 2017 Ford Mustang.
The officer told a detective from the 115th Precinct that he identified himself as a police officer and displayed his NYPD shield, and said, “I don’t think she wants to go with you. Stop dragging the female into the car.”
The man who remains at large slapped the shield out of his hand and shoved him to the ground. That’s when Garzon kicked him multiple times in his upper torso and punched the cop repeatedly in his head. Garzon’s accomplice wrapped his arm around the cop’s neck in a chokehold and applied pressure, causing him to lose consciousness.
As the officer passed out, the attack intensified with both men pounding away before driving off in a gray 2017 Ford Mustang in an unknown direction, police said. The victim sustained a concussion, dizziness, bruising all over his body, and abrasions to his knee, swelling and bleeding to his face, lacerations to his elbow, and cuts inside his mouth. EMS responded to the crime scene and rushed the off-duty cop to Elmhurst Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
Garzon was arraigned before Queens Criminal Court Judge Sharifa Nasser-Cuellar, who set bail at $30,000 bond and $10,000 cash.
The NYPD continues to search for the unapprehended suspect who allegedly placed the officer in a chokehold as the beatdown commenced. He is described as having a light complexion with short black hair, who wore a white T-shirt and blue jeans.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are confidential.
Through May 18, the 115th Precinct has reported 198 felony assaults so far in 2025, three fewer than the 201 reported at the same point last year, a decline of 1.5%, according to the most recent CompStat report.
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