Imze (Emzo) Yildiz, a Turkish immigrant who became a citizen just three weeks ago, is charged with felony assault after a Staten Island road rage incident with an off-duty cop left him with two black eyes and nine stitches above his eyebrow. But the cop, Officer Anthony Egan, was reportedly whisked away from the scene Tuesday morning with no charges or injuries, even though Emzo and at least one witness say Egan was the only one who threw punches. Welcome to America, Emzo!
"When does someone who does not throw a punch, and gets punched by somebody else, get arrested?" Emzo's lawyer asked at his arraignment. "When the other person is an off-duty police officer." The altercation apparently started after Emzo and Egan almost collided while jockeying for position during a traffic jam. Witness Cliff Browning says, "[Egan] kept blowing his horn and yelling. He was provoking, yelling, screaming, so Emzo stopped." According to Browning, Emzo got out of his car, "and he raised his hands and shrugged his shoulders, like, what’s your problem?"
A police spokesman claims Egan merely tapped on his horn, and that Emzo got out of his car and charged at Egan, who had identified himself as a police officer and threw a punch in self-defense. But Browning tells SI Live, "He never touched that cop. Egan started touching Emzo’s arm, and Emzo is yelling, ‘Don’t touch me! Don’t [bleeping] touch me,’ And the guy turned his right hand and pushed Emzo’s face, and came around with a left hook and clocked him in the eye. I was walking up ... about four feet away. I heard the punch. It was solid. He hit him so hard, it looked like he broke his eye. That was one punch. That guy had a solid left hook."
Prosecutors say Emzo hit the off-duty cop "with a closed fist causing ... swelling, contusions, redness and substantial pain to the face and the back of the head." But another witness, a mechanic who worked nearby and saw the whole thing, also says, "I didn’t see any marks on [Egan], none at all." The charges could land Emzo in prison for up to seven years. He tells SI Live, "First day I came to this country 15 years ago, I work. Today is first day I don't work."
