Driver Hits Midtown Traffic Cops With Metal Pipe, Police Say

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A Staten Island man is facing charges for attacking two traffic cops in Midtown Manhattan after being ticketed for illegally parking his pickup truck, an NYPD spoeksman said.

Michael Didonato, 52, was arrested Tuesday evening and hit with second-degree assault and criminal weapons possession charges, police said. Didonato is accused of striking two traffic officers with a metal pipe near West 28th Street and Broadway.

The two officers — 26- and 31-year-old men — wrote Didonato a summons for parking his Chevrolet pickup on West 28 Street and Sixth Avenue shortly after 9 a.m. Tuesday, police said. The Staten Islander refused to take the summons, got in his truck and drove off. When the officers were walking near Broadway and West 28th Street, Didonato returned to the scene and hit both officers from behind with a metal pipe, police said.

Detectives with the NYPD Regional Fugitive Task Force were able to track Didonato down and arrest him within 12 hours of the assault, Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison said. NYPD Comissioner Dermot Shea commended the detectives on the quick arrest.

"An attack on any member of the NYPD is an attack on society, & MUST be denounced by all NYers," Shea said in a statement.

Neither of the traffic officers attacked by Didonato suffered serious injuries, Shea said.