The man wanted for allegedly shooting an off-duty police detective was arrested and returned to the Bronx to face charges.
On Monday, December 13, Samuel Ventura, 22, of the south Bronx, was arrested in Waterbury, CT – about 90 miles north of the Pelham Bay Diner, where he is accused of shooting 43-year-old, Bronx narcotics detective Richard Olmo.
Ventura was taken back to the Bronx and arraigned on Thursday, December 23. He was charged with two counts of second-degree attempted murder, one count of second-degree attempted assault, one count of second-degree assault and one count of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
“It was a job well done by the detective bureau in the Bronx,” said Kevin Nicholson, captain of the 49th Precinct, where the shooting occurred. “They did a phenomenal job in getting him.”
According to Nicholson, detectives identified Ventura as the shooter from witnesses accounts and later found out he was in Connecticut. Officers traveled to Waterbury to make the arrest.
Nicholson said that when Ventura saw officers coming to arrest him, he started to run, but he didn’t get far.
Following his arraignment, he was sent to Rikers Island without bail.
According to police, the incident occurred at about 5 a.m. after a fight broke out over a fender-bender in the diner parking lot. Reports indicate one off Ventura’s friend’s bumped his car into a parked vehicle owned by a friend of Olmo’s.
Police said, Olmo, a 15-year police veteran who was unarmed at the time, identified himself as an NYPD officer and tried to calm the situation, but was shot at by Ventura.
Ventura allegedly fired a single round, which hit both of Olmo’s buttocks, reports indicate.
Ventura and his friends fled in a Chevorlet Caprice, police said. Olmo was taken to Jacobi Hospital, and released the day after the shooting.
Ventura was out on $5,000 bail at the time of the shooting. He has eight priors, which include drug possessions.
