Officers in the Police Department’s Mounted Unit do not often make arrests. But on Thursday, one of the unit’s officers rode his horse through the streets of Manhattan in pursuit of a woman accused of stealing a purse.
“Stop running!” the officer, who was riding a horse named Kelly, shouted at the woman, according to video of the episode posted to social media on Thursday by the Police Department. “Stop running!”
But she did not stop running. The woman, later identified as Felicia Field, 44, led the officer and his horse under sidewalk scaffolding sheds and between parked cars until a bystander — who was not riding a horse — intercepted her.
The Police Department said she was apprehended on Thursday “with the help of a witness.”
According to a criminal complaint filed on Thursday, Ms. Field was accused of stealing a purse from the lap of an older woman nearby. She was charged with larceny and providing false information to a police officer in an effort to conceal her identity, according to a criminal complaint.
A spokeswoman for New York County Defender Services, which is representing Ms. Fields, declined to comment.
After her arrest, the authorities discovered that Ms. Field was convicted in 2001 of second-degree murder in connection with the killing of a livery cabdriver whom she had attempted to rob with a group of friends.
She received a sentence of 25 years to life for that crime and was later released; the circumstances of her release were not clear on Thursday night.
A police spokesman said officers on horseback are typically deployed for crowd control or to observe the scene in places like Times Square.
The arrest on Thursday was captured by the body camera of the officer, whom the department did not identify. That video shows the horse’s head bobbing up and down as it gallops around West 72nd Street and Columbus Avenue with the officer on its back, yelling loudly.
Video of the episode was also captured by a news crew from the local NBC affiliate, which the station said was in the area for a separate story.
In the NBC footage, the woman can be heard denying that she stole anything. An unseen bystander can also be heard berating the officer for making the horse run in the street.
“You’re going to hurt somebody! You’re going to hurt this horse! What is wrong with you?” the bystander yells. “Stop! Get out of the street!”
Hurubie Meko contributed reporting.
Liam Stack is a Times reporter who covers the culture and politics of the New York City region.
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