by The NYPD has ID’d one of the cowardly thugs who allegedly beat an off-duty NYPD cop and stole his service weapon at knifepoint — and have now busted his father for allegedly using the officer’s stolen credit card, law enforcement sources told The Post.
Taveon Hargrove, 23, is a person of interest in the shocking assault shortly after 4 a.m. Saturday outside 1472 St. Peter’s Ave. in Westchester Square, when two “armed and extremely dangerous” goons pulled off the brazen armed robbery, police said.
Cops, who have not identified the second suspect, said Hargrove’s father was nabbed using the credit card at several Bronx bodegas, and now have the older man in custody, sources said.
The robbery itself was a brazen, brutal assault on one of New York’s Finest.
“Two individuals viciously attacked an off-duty NYPD officer,” the department said on X on Sunday. “They forced him to the ground, struck him in the face, held a knife to his throat, and stole his belongings, including his firearm.”
Police said the crooks made off with the off-duty officer’s Glock 19 9mm handgun.
Sources said the injured cop is awake and talking, but is still in a great deal of pain and is scheduled for surgery for a broken cheekbone and a fractured eye socket.
Meanwhile, the NYPD released a wanted poster of Hargrove over the weekend.
“Suspect is to be considered armed and extremely dangerous,” it said.
The attack comes in the midst of an uptick in assaults on New York’s Finest, with the incidents at “unprecedented levels” as of October, with the number surging by 41% through the first 10 months of 2024, NYPD data showed.
Through October, 1,975 officers were assaulted in 2024 compared to 1,763 at the same point in 2023.
Last month, three teen punks attacked a retired NYPD sergeant on the Upper East Side.
Commissioner Jessica Tisch blasted the “heinous attacks” on officers.
“In just the past month, we’ve seen some heinous attacks on police officers in NYC, including: one with part of his finger bitten off; another with part of his ear bitten off; and this latest vicious assault resulting in severe fractures to an officer’s face, among too many,” she said in an X post.
