Prosecutors will seek an indictment against an anti-cop agitator accused of trying to break into the Brooklyn home of a police officer — an incident NYPD supporters hope will renew interest in a long-dead bill making stalking a cop a separate crime.
Terrell Harper, 42, faces attempted burglary, felony criminal mischief and other charges for the chaotic Sept. 23 protest scene at the officer’s Sunset Park home.
The officer’s address was posted on social media, along with claims he put hands on demonstrators who were protesting outside the 73rd Precinct stationhouse over a Sept. 15 subway shooting that left four people wounded by police bullets.
At a Brooklyn Supreme Court hearing Tuesday, prosecutors from the Brooklyn district attorney’s office said they would go to a grand jury to seek an indictment in the case.
Outside the courthouse, state Assemblyman Michael Reilly (R-Staten Island) joined Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry blasting Harper, and calling for “stricter laws” to protect officers and their families.
“They weren’t there for a peaceful protest,” Hendry said. “They were there to cause chaos and disorder. And then they went to that home to terrorize a family and to threaten a police officer from stopping him from doing his job.”
Reilly has been trying to make stalking a cop, firefighter, peace officer or their family members a separate misdemeanor crime since 2021. But his first version of the bill was dead on arrival in the Democrat-controlled state Legislature, and his attempt to reintroduce it in February 2023 has also gotten no traction.
“This is a prime example what we’re here for today, that this legislation should have been passed,” Reilly said. “If this was in place, maybe we could have prevented it from escalating. But until that happens, every one of our police officers are in danger. Why? Because we allowed them to get that information.”
He linked the incident to the 2020 repeal of 50-a, a decades-old civil rights law used to keep police disciplinary records secret.
That law wouldn’t have prevented someone like Harper from looking up the cop’s address in a public records search. But Reilly says the disciplinary information now available after the repeal of 50-a makes it easier to identify officers.
Reilly likened his proposal to a recent law, which was passed as part of the state budget this year, that makes aggravated harassment of a judge a separate crime. “Our police officers need the same,” he said.
Two of the charges Harper faces — attempted burglary and felony criminal mischief — are felonies with more serious penalties than the proposed crime of stalking a police officer, which would be a misdemeanor.
Hendry and Reilly said they feel a stalking law would have prevented Harper from going as far as he did.
“We want people who threaten police officers’ safety and our families’ safety to be held accountable before they follow through on those threats,” Hendry said. “This bill will give us another tool to do that.”
Harper tried to enter the cop’s home by opening the front door, then kicked the door, touched the windows and yelled at the cop, according to a criminal complaint. Police said Harper also set a ski cap on fire and threw it.
“Come outside. Show us how tough you are,” he’s accused of saying. “Put one of your hands on one of us, you will see what happens. I will f–k you up.
“It’s all about making them feel it,” Harper added. “It’s all about making them scared of us. It’s all about making them quit their f–king job.”
Harper, who lives in Neptune, N.J., was caught on camera mocking an Asian-American detective assigned to a demonstration near the historic Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in 2021. Detective Vincent Chung later sued Harper, but the suit was dismissed, with the judge finding Harper’s comments were protected by the First Amendment.
In 2022, Harper posted an Instagram Story saying he couldn’t wait for a cop to die so he could “f–k up their funeral.”