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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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bdickens wrote:But if she was not unarmed, why didn't she take effective action?

Absolutely incompetent. Most likely got her position through affirmative action.

Liberty wrote: Could have been she was off duty. I don't know if NYC officers are required or allowed to carry off duty. Could have been working Jail duty. Could be we don't understand the facts.

tboesche wrote:911- Please state the nature of your emergency...
Caller- Help! there is a man with a knife slashing people. SEND HELP
911- Where are you Ma'am?
Caller- In my office at the Police Station......

ELB wrote:

Liberty wrote: Could have been she was off duty. I don't know if NYC officers are required or allowed to carry off duty. Could have been working Jail duty. Could be we don't understand the facts.

Not impossible that she was off-duty in a police station, but unlikely. But doesn't matter, there's no good reason she should not have been armed. If she was out and about, on or off duty, as a cop she should have been armed. Certainly the guy with the knife did not care who was or wasn't on duty.

And note the guy with the knife was chasing someone he had already wounded into the police station. She not only ran away, she abandoned the victim to the knife-wielder.

CompVest wrote:I don't think this article said she was unarmed just that she didn't have a radio on her.

stevie_d_64 wrote:Show of hands here...Anyone ever really been in a knife fight???