Daniel Maurer A man accused of stealing an iPad tangled with police officers at Lafayette and Bleecker Streets earlier today, sending two of them to Bellevue Hospital with cuts to their arms and legs.
The police said that around 3 p.m. today, a 25-year-old woman left her iPad on the counter at 230 Mulberry Street, where it was swiped by a man who entered the store and then fled toward Houston Street. At the Bleecker Street subway station, a police sergeant and a transit officer spotted a man fitting the suspect’s description and carrying an iPad. When they approached him, he took off running, a police representative said.
The officers caught up with the suspect at the intersection of Bleecker and Lafayette Streets, where a witness told The Local the man wrestled with officers until he was stripped to his underwear and shirt. After undercover officers arrived on the scene and joined in the melee, the man was eventually subdued and strapped to a gurney.
The police said the suspect, Kevin Chavis, was charged with assault of a police officer, resisting arrest, larceny, criminal mischief, and criminal possession of stolen property.
