A teen paroled after serving prison time for a vehicular assault that left an NYPD officer from Long Island with severe brain damage has been rearrested, according to the NYPD.
Sunday morning, Justin Murrel was arrested and accused of driving a stolen vehicle through a red light and speeding away from cops who tried to stop him, the NYPD said.
Murrell, 16 at the time, was convicted of assault — and acquitted of attempted murder — for driving away from a traffic stop while the cop, NYPD Officer Dalsh Veve of North Baldwin, was holding onto the side of the stolen vehicle. Veve — later promoted to detective — was left with severe brain damage.
The latest episode happened Sunday at about 1:20 a.m. when police officers responded to an alarm tripped by the gunshot detection system ShotSpotter and saw a vehicle being driven through a red light. The stolen car was a 2021 Honda with a temporary Alabama license plate, an NYPD spokesman said Sunday.
That vehicle, reported stolen May 15 from the Resorts World Casino in Queens, belonged to Honda of Valley Stream, he said.
The driver, a man later identified by police as Murrell, sped away from the officers who tried to stop the vehicle, and he crashed the Honda into several parked vehicles, the spokesman said.
The police officers chased him on foot, and he and three other occupants of the vehicle — a 15-year-old boy, a 44-year-old woman and another adult woman — were detained. The arrests of all but Murrell were later voided, the spokesman said.
Murrell was charged with grand larceny of an automobile, reckless endangerment, possession of stolen property and disobeying a traffic light. Murrell had not yet been arraigned, Oren Yaniv, a spokesman for the Brooklyn district attorney, Eric Gonzalez said Sunday evening.
Murrell had been paroled in March 2020, state parole records show. His sentence was 16 months to 4 years.
In a news release Sunday afternoon, Patrick J. Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association labor union, said: "Is anyone surprised? This perp dragged a hero New York City police officer behind a stolen car, paralyzing him. He had an extensive criminal record before that. And yet we had a judge and elected officials who thought he should be given yet another chance and put right back on the street. ?"
Honda of Valley Stream was closed early Sunday evening and couldn’t be reached for comment.