Christian Zapata hit a man repeatedly after being called to help calm an autistic teenager. Mr. Zapata got into a confrontation with the man after the sergeant refused to wear a mask.
Christian Zapata hit a man repeatedly after being called to help calm an autistic teenager. Mr. Zapata got into a confrontation with the man after the sergeant refused to wear a mask.
Christian Zapata hit a man repeatedly after being called to help calm an autistic teenager. Mr. Zapata got into a confrontation with the man after the sergeant refused to wear a mask.
A former New York City police officer was convicted on Wednesday of attempted assault for punching a man 13 times after the man’s girlfriend called 911 seeking help with her distraught son.
The former officer, Christian Zapata, 37, was sentenced in the nonjury trial to time served, meaning he will not spend time behind bars. He was acquitted of a more serious charge, third-degree assault, which could have carried up to a year in jail.
Justice Curtis Farber said Manhattan prosecutors chose not to call the victim, Jerome Collins, as a witness and a review of medical records failed to show that he had suffered injuries.
“This was a single, abhorrent act by Mr. Zapata,” Judge Farber said during the sentencing hearing in Manhattan Supreme Court, according to court transcripts. “He otherwise led an unblemished career as a New York City police officer and police sergeant.”
Mr. Zapata, who resigned from the department on Jan. 3, was a sergeant on Dec. 7, 2022, when he and other officers responded to a Harlem apartment after a mother called for help because she was unable to calm her 15-year-old son, who is autistic.
When the officers came inside, the mother’s boyfriend, Mr. Collins, asked them to put on masks, according to court documents and video footage captured by the officers’ body cameras. The police officers refused and the exchange escalated into a confrontation that ended with Mr. Zapata grabbing Mr. Collins and punching him as another officer held down his hands. The punching stopped only after another officer came between the two men.