Suspect in Bronx attack on off-duty officer taken into custody in Philadelphia

WILLIAMSBRIDGE (WABC) -- Police have taken a suspect into custody in an attack on an off-duty NYPD officer in the Bronx.

Samuel Thornton, 21, was nabbed at a home on Vankirk Street in Philadelphia, arrested by NYPD and US Marshals around noon.

Detectives figured out his identity by using facial recognition software on surveillance video from the incident.

The officer was punched and robbed of her gun at the intersection of Bronx Boulevard and East 226th Street in the Wakefield section just after 5:45 a.m. Wednesday.

The suspect grabbed at the female officer's bag in a garage as she headed to work, and after a struggle, made off with more than just her purse.

"I am angry, yeah I am," building super Robert Rodriguez said.

For Rodriguez, this is personal. He's the super of the Park Circle apartment building where cops swarmed after an attack on one of their own.

"He grabbed her, he was just punching her, punching her, she didn't want to let go of the purse, you know," he said. "She's trying to reach for her piece, and I guess he got frustrated. He like really, really hit her hard, and knocked her to the floor."

He got away with her bag, which contained her service revolver.

Rodriguez says he kicked the man out of his garage just last week, and it was clear then he was up to no good.

Thornton did not have the officer's service weapon in his possession at the time of his arrest, and when law enforcement asked him where it was, he directed them to a location in the Bronx, where it was recovered.

The suspect will be extradited back to New York.