David Sivella, an Upper East Sider, recently took to Twitter to share his story of being trailed by a random man who said to him, “You’ll be dead real soon, dirty cop,” near East 95th Street and Lexington Avenue. It happens to be the same intersection where a woman was fatally shot as she pushed a baby stroller on Wednesday, June 27. This story was first reported by Fox News.
Sivella’s not a cop. According to Fox News, he’s a blogger, but his personal website doesn’t show much besides a quote from Mark Twain about patriotism and a short bio, which reads, “Cardozo Law School, Rutgers University, BOE President, NJ Assembly, US Congress, US Senate staffs, NYC Council PAC, Housing Authority Executive Director.”
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The video taken by Sivella was recorded “around 1:30 p.m. on July 19, show[ing] a man wearing long sleeves and pants in 90-degree weather, carrying a Dunkin’ bag and sipping from a Big Gulp cup,” reports Fox News, which went on to describe how “the unidentified man started following him between 96th and 95th streets on Lexington Avenue.”
“The guy was off the wall,” Sivella told Fox. Thirteen seconds into the video, the unidentified man says to Sivella, “Take all the pictures you like, I’m on social media already.” Sivella then asks for the man’s name twice before he responds, “You got all my information, dirty cop. You’ll be dead real soon dirty cop. Call your friends at the Seventeen[th precinct].” Sivella answers, “Will do,” while a subtitle in the video explains that “This was in the 19th precinct.”
According to Sivella, the man followed him to East 92nd Street, where he saw an officer and reported the problem. Allegedly the officer responded, “We can’t do anything unless they assault you,” Fox News reported.
A spokesperson for the NYPD tells ESF there’s no official report of this incident.