NYPD continuing search after officer badly beaten in the Bronx

Police Monday were continuing the search for the men they allege badly beat an off-duty NYPD officer — stealing his gun and leaving him in critical condition — in the Bronx early Saturday morning.

The NYPD has named 23-year-old Taveon Hargrove as one of the two people wanted in connection with the beating in the Westchester Square area, but said the second person remains unidentified.

Police said two people walked up to the off-duty cop soon after 4 a.m. on St. Peter’s Avenue near Frisby Avenue, threw him to the ground and hit him in the face.

The two people held a knife to his throat and stole his wallet, iPhone and registered firearm, according to a statement released by the NYPD. The statement didn’t specify whether the gun was a service weapon. The cop was rushed to a local hospital in critical condition, authorities said.

Surveillance video published by the New York Post appears to show two people pinning the officer to the ground, repeatedly striking him and stomping on his face.

Police have not released the officer’s identity.

Hargrove has not been arrested. But police said a person with the same last name, 55-year-old Jeffrey Hargrove, was later arrested on a charge of misapplication of stolen property after allegedly using the officer’s credit card around 3 a.m. Sunday morning.

In a post on social media, city’s Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Kaz Daughtry said the administration “will use every resource to ensure that Hargrove and his accomplice end up in front of a judge.”

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement that the beating was the latest in a string of attacks on NYPD officers.

“In just the past month, we’ve seen some heinous attacks on police officers in NYC, including: one with part of his finger bitten off; another with part of his ear bitten off; and this latest vicious assault resulting in severe fractures to an officer’s face, among too many others,” Tisch said.

“Attack one of our own and you will get the full force of the greatest police department in the world coming for you, just like Taveon Hargrove does now,” she added.