#Authorities building case against Bronx man who put NYPD officer in headlock

Authorities are taking their time to build an airtight case against a Bronx man allegedly caught on camera putting an NYPD cop in a headlock, upping their odds of making charges stick, sources said Sunday.

A 1-minute, 38-second clip of the tense July 1 encounter in Mount Hope allegedly shows Wisnel Manzueta, 29, grabbing the cop in a headlock while the officer and his partner were trying to arrest another man for parking in front of a fire hydrant, drawing cheers from onlookers.

That video, shot on one observer’s phone, appears to show the cop lunging toward Manzueta first. But the video does not show what apparently caused the cop to lunge — the suspect allegedly kicking down the street a body camera that had fallen off the uniform of one of the officers.

Investigators believe that other footage would tell the whole story — and that a rush to prosecute without it could jeopardize the case, sources said.

“Bronx DA needs to get over that hill with a Bronx grand jury,” said one law-enforcement source. “[It’s] likely they want to present the strongest evidence possible to show what led up to that arrest.”

The chaos began at around 8:50 p.m. July 1 when cops asked Franklin Adrian, 31, to move his car, which was parked near a fire hydrant at Morris Avenue and Grand Concourse, police said.

When he refused, cops issued him a ticket. When he still refused, they moved to arrest him, but he dug in his heels as they tried to move him along.

Manzueta, watching from the periphery, refused repeated orders to back away and eventually came to blows when one of the cops lunged at him and started swinging, according to video and authorities.

Their scuffle allegedly included Manzueta grabbing the lawman in a headlock — a maneuver that cops themselves will soon be barred from using under the expected passage of a new City Council bill.

Manzueta got away, but turned himself in with his lawyer on Wednesday.

It was the attorney who presented the clip which appears to show the cop striking first, sources said.

Cops arrested Manzueta on an assault charge, but prosecutors opted to gather further evidence before moving forward.