Prosecutors hope to charge an anti-cop agitator accused of breaking into an NYPD officer's home in Brooklyn

Prosecutors will file charges against an anti-cop agitator accused of breaking into a Brooklyn cop's home, an incident that NYPD supporters hope will renew interest in a long-enacted law. which makes stalking a police officer a separate crime.

Terrell Harper, 42, faces attempted burglary, aggravated felonious assault and other charges stemming from the chaotic protest scene Sept. 23 at the officer's home in Sunset Park.

The officer's address was posted on social media, along with claims that he hand-held demonstrators protesting outside the 73rd Precinct station building over a Sept. 15 subway shooting that left four people dead injured by police shots.

At a hearing in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Tuesday, prosecutors from the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office said they would approach a grand jury to file an indictment in the case.

Outside the courthouse, state Rep. Michael Reilly (R-Staten Island) joined Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry, who blasted Harper and called for “stronger laws” to protect officers and their families.

“They weren’t there for a peaceful protest,” Hendry said. “They were there to cause chaos and disorder. And then they went to that house to terrorize a family and threaten a police officer to stop him from doing his job.”

Since 2021, Reilly has been trying to make stalking a police officer, firefighter, peace officer or their family members a separate offense. But his first version of the bill failed when it passed the Democratic-controlled state legislature, and his attempt to reintroduce it in February 2023 has also failed to gain traction.

“This is a prime example of what we’re here for today, which is that this bill should have been passed,” Reilly said. “If this had happened, we might have been able to prevent an escalation. But until that happens, every one of our police officers is in danger. Why? Because we allowed them to get this information.”

He linked the incident to the 2020 repeal of 50-a, a decades-old civil rights law designed to keep police disciplinary records secret.

This law would not have prevented someone like Harper from looking up the police officer's address during a public records search. But Reilly says the disciplinary information now available after the repeal of 50-a makes it easier to identify officers.

Reilly compared his proposal to a law recently passed in the state budget that makes aggravated harassment of a judge a separate crime. “Our police officers need the same thing,” he said.

Two of the charges Harper faces – attempted burglary and criminal mischief – are felonies with more serious penalties than the proposed crime of stalking a police officer, which would be a misdemeanor.

Hendry and Reilly said they felt a stalking law would have prevented Harper from going as far as he did.

“We want people who endanger the safety of law enforcement officers and our families to be held accountable before they carry out these threats,” Hendry said. “This bill will give us another tool to do this.”

According to a criminal complaint, Harper attempted to enter the officer's home by opening the front door, then kicked the door, touched the windows and yelled at the officer. Police said Harper also lit and threw a ski hat on fire.

“Come out. Show us how tough you are,” he is accused. “Put one of your hands on one of us, you’ll see what happens. I'll finish you off.

“It’s about them feeling it,” Harper added. “It's just about making them afraid of us. It’s just a matter of getting them to quit their damn job.”

Harper, who lives in Neptune, New Jersey, was caught on camera mocking an Asian American detective who was deployed to a demonstration near the historic Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in 2021. Detective Vincent Chung later sued Harper, but the lawsuit was dismissed by the judge, finding that Harper's comments were protected by the First Amendment.

In 2022, Harper posted an Instagram Story in which he said he couldn't wait for a police officer to die so he could “screw up her funeral.”

Originally published: October 1, 2024 at 6:59 p.m