Yonkers PD Captain mugged while walking

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Police captain mugged in Yonkers 'banged up' but OK

By Will David

The Journal News

(Original Publication: November 15, 2006)

YONKERS - A group of teenagers mugged the commander of the Yonkers Police Department's Internal Affairs Division as he was taking his usual health walk on the city's west side, police said.

Four or five men ganged up on Detective Capt. Gerald Curtis, a 42-year veteran of the force, at about 10:30 last night and stole his Verizon cell phone.

The mugging happened near Palisade Avenue and Delavan Terrace, just north of Commerce School, Yonkers Lt. Richard R. Ruyack said. Curtis was off duty.

"He's a little banged up, but he is doing OK," Lt. John Mueller, president of the Yonkers Police Captains, Lieutenants and Sergeants Association, said this morning.

Yonkers police Capt. Joseph Barca said the group walked up to the victim, passed him, and then one of them punched him from behind, knocking him down.

The group then punched and kicked him, rifled through his pockets, took the cell phone and ran off east on Delavan.

Curtis was treated at St. John's Riverside Hospital in Yonkers and released.

Curtis, the longtime internal affairs commander is a relentless walker. He walks the streets in all corners of Yonkers and Westchester for exercise. He is scheduled to retire next year.

Mueller said, "It's a shame with a month to go before he retires that one of our best captains had to be subjected to this."