A judge cut loose a repeat transit offender who had just allegedly chomped into a police sergeant’s arm during a violent arrest fight.
Derrick Daniels, 23, of New Jersey, was already wanted on a bench warrant when two officers spotted him at the Brighton Beach subway station in Brooklyn around 5:15 a.m. On Sept. 13, according to an NYPD spokesman. Daniels, who has seven prior arrests with three in the past year alone for transit-related crimes, tried to flee when officers moved to take him into custody.
“They tried to take him into custody [and] he violently resisted arrest,” the spokesman said.
During the struggle, Daniels allegedly bit the female sergeant in the forearm hard enough to break her skin and leave her bleeding, police said. A photo of the wound circulated among investigators. The sergeant is now recovering at home. A detective also sustained knee injuries in the fracas.
The arresting officers slapped Daniels with two counts of assault. Police also charged him with two counts of grand larceny tied to separate phone thefts from sleeping straphangers, cops said. On Aug. 26, Daniels allegedly snatched a phone at the Parkside Avenue station. On Sept. 9, he struck again at the Stillwell Avenue Station, police said. He was carrying both stolen phones when arrested, according to investigators.
“When we talk about transit, this guy is one of the select few,” a police source said. “Our cops are laser focused on them.”
Despite the bloody assault and Daniels’ lengthy rap sheet, Judge Michele Russo released him on non-monetary conditions, court records show. Prosecutors’ bail request, if any, was not immediately clear.
“Clearly, the rest of the system needs to hold up their end of the bargain,” the police source said. “We have two cops that were injured. We’re being assaulted in the transit system while we’re doing our job.”
The case highlights a broader pattern troubling transit officers: more than half of those arrested for transit crimes in 2026 so far have had three or more prior arrests, according to police statistics. Daniels fits that profile precisely, with his three transit arrests in just the last 12 months stacked atop four earlier busts.
Daniels is due back in court to face the consolidated charges.