Officer in subway battle: 'I'm trying to survive'; 3 charged

New York City police officer Syed Ali walks out of a briefing room at police headquarters, Thursday, Dec. 27, 2018, after speaking to reporters about his battle with three homeless men who came at him as he patrolled a Manhattan subway station on Sunday, Dec. 22. Ali has been widely praised for his response, which was caught on a video that has gone viral. Charges were brought against Ali's assailants after the video of the attack was viewed more than 4.75 million times on social media.
Photo: Michael Sisak.

At first, police only cited the men for sleeping on the station floor the day after the altercation, not the fight itself. The Manhattan District Attorney's office dropped the matter, citing a policy curbing prosecution of those kinds of low-level violations.

The initial lack of charges angered Ali's union, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, which issued a fiery statement on Christmas Day urging that the men "be held accountable for their actions."

The DA's office said the prosecutors handling the sleeping violations were not aware the men were also suspected of fighting with Ali. Had they been, the charges wouldn't have been dropped, spokesman Danny Frost said.

Alvarez, 36, is also charged with attempted assault, attempted possession of a weapon and menacing. He and Nunez, 27, were arrested on Wednesday. Alvarado, 31, turned himself in on Thursday.

It wasn't immediately clear if the men had lawyers who could comment on their behalf.

Two other men in the video appeared to be trying to break up the scuffle. They haven't been charged.

Ali, who's originally from Bangladesh, joined the NYPD six years ago. He doesn't use social media and said he didn't know about his online fame until days later.

Ali said he calmly approached the men and told them to leave after a subway rider complained to him that they were harassing and scaring her.

"Unfortunately, they didn't move the way I would expect them to," Ali said.

Ali said he felt a trickle of sweat down the back of his neck and took a moment to size up the situation before springing into "straight up police action."

During the commotion, one of the homeless men tumbled off the platform in the chaos and had to be pulled from the tracks. He and the others were taken to a hospital for treatment.

"When I saw that guy trip over, I was like 'holy cow, let me try to grab him,'" Ali said. "I felt like the next biggest thing I could do was cut the power."

Though outnumbered, Ali never pulled his gun.

Mayor Bill de Blasio praised his "professionalism and bravery." A city councilman presented him with a plaque for his "quick action."

"Officer Ali did a great job that night," said Vincent Coogan, the assistant chief executive officer of the NYPD's Transit Bureau.

"He kept the situation from maybe escalating and getting worse," Coogan said. "It was a perfect outcome. Nobody got hurt."