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Officer Nicolas Deleon was the first to arrive to the report of an unconscious victim outside 96 South Washington Avenue just before 3 a.m. Sunday.
He broadcast a description of the alleged assailant and began tending to the victim – who was bleeding from the nose and mouth – when 37-year-old Geraldo Reyes-Penaloza of Englewood approached and began yelling at him, Detective Capt. Cathy Madalone said.
Deleon “ warned [Penaloza] to stay back several times, to no avail,” Madalone said.
When the officer told him he was being arrested for obstruction, the captain said, Penaloza “raised his hands in an aggressive manner,” then “resisted arrest and assaulted [Officer]Deleon.”
Backups quickly arrived and Penaloza was taken into custody, she said.
As this was happening, a friend snatched up the victim, leaving officers unable to obtain more information or render further aid, Madalone said.
Penaloza was released on a summons charging him with aggravated assault on a police officer, resisting arrest and obstruction, to be answered in Municipal Court, she said.
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