A Brooklyn man was charged with assaulting two police officers and a Department of Environmental Protection agent after an officer was hit in the head with a brick earlier this week in Queens, the district attorney’s office said.
Edward Wysk, 51, got into an argument with DEP agent Michael Lateef on Tuesday at about 12:30 p.m. when Lateef tried to issue him a stop work order on 58-91 Maspeth Ave., a home he owns and was renovating, because he didn’t have the proper asbestos reports, prosecutors said.
Wysk ripped up the order and threw Lateef’s credentials on the ground. When Lateef tried to call the police, Wysk took his phone and threw it against a wall, breaking it, prosecutors said.
When police officers Matthew Portoles and Randy Paulsaint arrived, Wysk ran inside the house. A brick then came flying out the window of the door, hitting Paulsaint in the head, police and prosecutors said.
Paulsaint was taken to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn and had to get five stitches on his head.
Wysk also resisted arrest, causing Portoles to hit his arm on the scaffolding outside the home, prosecutors said.
Wysk allegedly admitted to attacking Lateef, but said injuring the officer was an accident.
“When I saw the cuffs come out I ran into the house and up the stairs, pushing things out of the way, like two-by-fours and a fire extinguisher, and I think it may have hit the officer,” he told investigators, according to the district attorney’s office.
Two construction workers were taken into custody after the incident, police said, but they were later released.
Wysk was charged with assaulting a police officer, criminal mischief, obstructing governmental administration, resisting arrest and harassment, the district attorney’s office said.
