June 30 (UPI) — A man who impersonated an officer with the NYPD last Sunday and allegedly pepper-sprayed a tourist has been identified as an former convict who previously spent six years in prison.
Police said Dominic Ogrady, 35, allegedly stopped commuters from entering South Ferry subway station in Manhattan and tried to detain them while identifying himself as a police officer and sporting a fake NYPD detective shield on a chain around his neck.
Around 6:35 p.m. that day, a 46-year-old man tried to walk away from Ogrady, but he discharged a can of pepper spray to the back of the victim’s head before he fled on a northbound R train, detectives said.
The 46-year-old victim sustained burning and swelling to his face and took himself to Bellevue Hospital, where he was treated and released, police said. Ogrady has not been caught.
According to the New York Daily News, the 46-year-old victim was with his family and allegedly entered the station through an open exit gate without paying the fare.
Police said Ogrady uses the alias Domingo Diaz and served six years in prison after he was convicted of attempted weapons possession when he was caught with a firearm in Harlem in 2007. He was released from prison in 2014.
