Off-duty NYPD cop slashed while trying to stop Duane Reade shoplifter

An off-duty NYPD cop working security at a Midtown Duane Reade was slashed by a homeless shoplifter whom he tried to stop early Wednesday, cops and police sources said.

The 52-year-old cop — who was working a side job at the store — caught Domonique Lax, 33, in the act as she pilfered unspecified items at the drugstore on Eighth Avenue near 44th Street just after midnight, cops said. 

Lax used a pair of scissors to slash the cop on the shoulder, police said. 

The officer was left with what police sources described as a “deep cut” and taken to Bellevue Hospital. 

Lax was busted on scene and hit with multiple charges, including aggravated assault on a police officer, three counts of robbery, reckless endangerment, obstruction of governmental administration, petit larceny, menacing, harassment and resisting arrest, authorities said. 

She has no prior arrests – according to cops, although some of the city’s regular shoplifters have racked up a laundry list of busts.

Emily Baez, a security guard who has worked at the store for two months, told The Post Wednesday afternoon that she didn’t know the off-duty cop or the alleged assailant. 

But she said that shoplifters come around “all day, every day,” swiping all kinds of loot, but toilet paper and baby wipes are among the popular items. She is virtually powerless to stop them, she said. 

“I’m unarmed so I can’t really do anything,” Baez said. “My safety is first. The most I can do is call the cops.”

“He tried to stop them and he got stabbed,” she said of the cop. “I don’t want to get stabbed.”

The security guard Wednesday morning was armed, Baez said, but still took a risk.

“When they tend to stop them, you don’t know what they have on them,” she said. “My company, I can’t stop nobody. The most I can do is report to my manager, the store manager. That’s mainly my job – report to a store manager.”

The shoplifters often sell the items inside the 8th Avenue Times Square train station, Baez said.  

“It’s really bad,” she said. “It’s sad how you see all these homeless people.”

An employee who did not want to be identified said the thieves “just grab anything, the more expensive stuff like Red Bull…ice cream.”

“Every day it happens,” the worker said about the stealing.

“It’s the same people,” the employee said, referring to repeat offenders. “It’s so many.”