A tattooed hooligan was identified as part of a group of people wanted for a shocking prank caught on video in which they unleashed a fire extinguisher on a New York Police Department traffic officer, authorities said.
Escalin Polanco Gonzalez, 19, whose mugshot released by the NYPD on Monday night shows a distinctive tattoo on his neck, may be involved in a crime that happened Thursday at St. Nicholas Avenue and West 118th Street in Harlem, police said, that sent Gonzalez to the hospital with an eye injury.
According to footage posted to Instagram, around 6:50 a.m., the 43-year-old uniformed officer was driving his NYPD patrol car near an intersection when a gray four-door sedan with four people inside pulled up next to him.
A front seat passenger in the sedan can be seen holding a fire extinguisher on his lap.
He then yelled “Hey!” at the officers and fired his gun into the open window of the patrol car.
In the video, occupants of the sedan can be heard laughing as they drive away while music plays in the background.
A fully masked man in the back seat then appears to repeatedly say “Lord Diablo,” referring to the devil.
The officer was taken to Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital in stable condition.
Police sources said Polanco Gonzalez had been arrested twice before, first in December on suspicion of dangerous driving on a dirt bike.
He was arrested again two days later on robbery charges, but the arrest was later sealed, sources said.
As of Tuesday morning, no arrests had been made in the fire extinguisher incident.
The NYPD also released a photo of a different, unnamed suspect boarding an MTA bus.
