Off-duty NYPD cop stabbed in mugging reveals why he fought to keep necklace and how thugs reacted when he told them he was police

The off-duty NYPD cop stabbed in a mugging revealed Tuesday that he fought back as his attackers grabbed the gold chain his mom gave  him — adding the thugs didn’t care when he told them he was police.“I almost died,’’ said Detective Jose Mercedes, speaking for the first time since the bloody Oct.2 assault by two accused illegal migrants, to reporters at his police union’s headquarters in Manhattan.“I told them in English, I told them in Spanish that I was a police officer,” he said.

“They didn’t care.”The 10-year NYPD veteran — with his left arm still in a cast and stitches and scars visible on his right arm — described how he chased his attackers for five blocks while profusely bleeding before collapsing on the sidewalk.Mercedes was assaulted in the middle of the day while cleaning out his car by two men riding an e-bike, according to officials.The violent duo stabbed Mercedes in the neck, arm and leg 10 times and snatched his gold chain from his neck and fleeing the scene.The stolen jewelry was a sentimental gift from Mercedes’ mother, he said.The suspects fled but were caught days later hiding in a basement in Massachusetts.They were identified as  D’Angelo Caraballo, a 25-year-old illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic, and 24-year-old Sneinder Mejia, who also was in the country illegally from the DR, according to the NYPD.Both had prior arrest records in New York City but were dumped back on the street because of local soft-on-crime laws, officials said.Mercedes — asked Tuesday about his own Dominican descent and the immigration and criminal histories involving his accused attackers  — deflected and spoke instead about how he has dedicated his career to investigating crime.But DEA President Scott Munro, who stood alongside the wounded detective at the press conference, had some choice words.“These perpetrators — they’re illegal.They need to do 25 years to life,” Munro seethed.“They picked on this gi...