Man caught on video throwing water at NYC traffic agents

New York City police officers are looking for a man who was caught on video throwing water at two traffic enforcement agents. The NYPD Crime Stoppers Program released surveillance video Tuesday night of the man walking up to the traffic agents in Queens with a large bottle of water in one hand and a cellphone in the other.

The man appeared to be recording the July 24 incident with the phone. He was holding it up as he crossed a street approaching the traffic agents, who were standing on a sidewalk.

When he reached the sidewalk, he stopped in front of the agents and threw water at them from the bottle. The agents stepped back, and the man turned around and crossed back to the other side of the street.

A man throws water at two New York Police Department traffic enforcement agents in the Queens borough of New York City July 24, 2019, in an image capture of surveillance video released by the NYPD Crime Stoppers Program. NYPD Crime Stoppers

Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $2,500 for information about the man. Last week’s incident follows a string of others in which people are seen on video dousing police officers with water around the city.

The incidents have caught the attention of officials from President Trump to New York state lawmakers. Mr. Trump said Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is running to be the Democratic nominee for president, should “stand up” for the NYPD.

On Wednesday, two state assemblymen proposed legislation that would make dousing police officers with water a felony, CBS station WCBS-TV reports. People convicted of the crime could be punished with a sentence ranging between one and four years in prison.