By Andy Mai and John Annese
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — The alleged drug dealer was trying to act out a scene from “The Fast and the Furious,” when he was caught on camera trying to mow down an NYPD officer in Times Square, his lawyer said early Friday.
Arfhy Santos, 20, was behind the wheel of his buddy’s Mercedes-Benz when he dragged NYPD Officer Ian Wallace as the cop tried to stop him Saturday.
“It’s easy to get caught up in the sensationalism of the video that had gone viral at this point,” Santos’ lawyer, Paul Presti said. “My client’s behavior that day was stupid, to reenact a scene out of ‘The Fast and the Furious.’”
Wallace, who stepped in front of the car to stop it, didn’t approach the vehicle in “the typical way,” and Santos thought the officer was going for his holster and got scared, Presti said.
Santos is charged with assault and was held on $100,000 bail at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court. He has open drug dealing charges from an October arrest in the Bronx. Car owner William Lopez, 24, was also in the vehicle and was held on $5,000 bond or $2,500 cash bail.
Lopez faces reckless endangerment and reckless driving charges for an earlier incident in Manhattan where he‘s accused of driving on a sidewalk for two blocks to escape police.
“The police got it wrong because it was not Mr. Lopez that was driving,” Lopez’s lawyer, Luis Diaz said.
Lopez has a pending case in the Bronx for a similar incident.
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