Cop who called 911 on thug gets heat
BY Joe Kemp and Alison Gendar
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Thursday, June 25th 2009, 4:00 AM
Confronted by a knife-wielding thug who burst into a Queens stationhouse, an NYPD lieutenant hightailed it to her office and called 911.
Lt. Sophia Sifneos identified herself and told the operator to send help to the 109th Precinct stationhouse.
"Where are you?" asked the puzzled 911 operator.
"I'm in my office," Sifneos, 39, replied, according to sources familiar with the exchange. "I had no radio on me."
Sifneos was confronted by Armondo Torres, 35, who allegedly slashed another man on the stationhouse steps and chased him inside, brandishing an 8-inch blade.
Torres was shot by other officers when he lunged at them with knife still in hand. He is in stable condition at New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens.
The three officers who fired were credited with preventing other injuries, and police investigators said the shooting appeared to fall within department guidelines.
But the lieutenant's actions were questioned by some fellow officers at the Flushing precinct.
"You take an oath to protect the public and fellow officers. It just is not a high point for the badge," a police source said.
The NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau interviewed Sifneos, a 12-year veteran, and other officers who were in the stationhouse June 4, and found no disciplinary action was justified, sources said.
"She has a good record, a hard worker. She didn't have a radio, so [she] did the next best thing, picked up a cell phone," another police source said.
agendar@nydailynews.com
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