Attempted NYPD Cop Killer Mistakenly Released From Prison Found: Feds

NEW YORK, NY - A man convicted of shooting at two NYPD officers in Queens over a decade ago was nabbed by U.S. Marshals after he was mistakenly released from prison last week, federal authorities said.

Antonio Olmeda, 65, who was sentenced in 2015 to more than 12 years in prison in connection with a 2011 Queens shooting at a pair of on-duty officers, was “released in error” from a low-security federal prison in Connecticut last Wednesday, the U.S. Marshals New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force said in a statement.

The error came after a request was made by the state to release him in order to face state charges of attempted murder, U.S. Marshals said. Apparently, a note to keep Olemda detained was absent from the request.

“Compounding the … concern was that Olmeda was thought to carry a “hit list” of [U.S. Marshals Service] protected persons,” U.S. Marshals said in a statement.

Olmeda was arrested by federal agents early Saturday morning at a shelter on the Lower East Side in Manhattan. He was later brought into state custody for a pending retrial for attempted murder in connection with the 2011 incident.

“This was a successful arrest of a dangerous felon set free by accident,” said Ralph Sozio, U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. “I want to thank the NY/NJ RFTF for their dedicated coordination and rapid apprehension, getting him back into custody without incident.”

On Dec. 2, 2011, Olmeda donned a fake beard, fedora and trench coat before firing three shots at NYPD Officers Stephen Denisi and Matthew Ferrara, the New York Post reported.

Neither officer was struck, though a bullet did hit a window of a dentist's office, the outlet reported. Authorities later matched Olmeda's DNA to hair from the fake beard and busted the convict on Dec. 19, 2011, while he was on his way to kill his lawyer, prosecutors said.

Olmeda's run-ins with the law are nothing new. In 1995, he was found with an Uzi machine gun, a sawed-off shotgun, a silencer, and several boxes of ammunition for the Uzi, plus a flamethrower, 18 pipe bombs, seven cans containing black powder and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition, prosecutors said.

In 2003, he was convicted in North Carolina for possessing ammunition after having previously been convicted of a felony. He was busted after outside the Fort Bragg military base after inquiring about the security at the base, federal authorities said. A search of his luggage later found 328 rounds of ammunition and receipts for ammunition purchased earlier that day.