A disturbed off-duty NYPD traffic agent stabbed his girlfriend, then held Bronx cops at bay for 13 hours yesterday as he stood nearly naked on a narrow window ledge, police said.
PHOTOS: Police Standoff In Bronx
It was a scene chillingly reminiscent of a standoff two months ago between Brooklyn cops and a completely nude Iman Morales, who died after an officer zapped him with a Taser, sending him tumbling head-first from atop the housing of a roll-down gate.
Police were far more cautious in yesterday’s confrontation – avoiding the kind of aggressive action that led to the death of the mentally ill Morales’ and the suicide eight days later of Lt. Michael Pigott, who had ordered the Tasering.
“After what happened in Brooklyn, [the Bronx man] was going to have to come in on his own,” a police source said.
Dressed only in boxer shorts stained with the victim’s blood, Rodulfo Jones, 49, climbed out his fourth-floor kitchen window as cops smashed in his apartment door at around midnight.
His girlfriend, Carmen Velez, who had called 911, was found barely alive in the bathroom. She was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital – where she remained in critical condition last night – while cops dealt with Jones.
Undeterred by a steady rain, he stubbornly stood his ground on a foot-wide perch as negotiators tried to coax him in.
“He was saying that he was a demon,” said Emergency Service Unit Sgt. Christopher Pupo. “He kept saying that it was not his character, that he couldn’t believe that he’d done it, but he was determined to stay outside.”
Jones wept as police tried to talk him down.
Unlike the ill-fated Morales, who waved a fluorescent light tube at cops, Jones’ hands were empty.
As the hours wore on, the fatigued Jones repeatedly squatted to keep his legs from cramping. Airbags were placed on the street below him.
“He was definitely thinking about jumping, but we talked that out of him,” said Pupo. “Then we had to wait it out.”
At 1:45 p.m., Jones said he was ready to come inside. Two ESU cops rappelled down and helped him back in.
Pupo said Jones “was asking about his girlfriend. He was really concerned about her.”