The under-fire chairwoman of the city’s Housing Authority doubled down on her police detail Thursday — and again ducked questions on allegations she lied about testing low-incomꦛe apartments for lead paint.
Two uniformed cops and a marked police cruiser marked PSA5 — indicating it belongs to the command responsible for patrolling NYCHA housing in Harlem and East Harlem — were posted outside the Harlem apartment of NYCHA head Shola Olatoye by 8 a.m. Thursday morning — double the “lead shield” she had on Wednesday morning, when she showed up late to work following Tuesday’s bombshell 💦allegations.
At 8:30 a.m., a black SUV pulled up, and the🍷 two Finest went inside Olatoye’s building, emerging moments later flanking the embattled housing♎ head.
She scurried into t⭕he SUV, a Toyota Highlander, and the vehicle pulled away, while the apparent housing cops and cruiser remained behind for nearly two hours after she departed, finally pulling away at 10:15 a.m.
The officers were several blocks from the nearest housing development. Housing cops are “hugely critical because they know the complex like the back of their hands,” Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association president Pat Lynch has said.
Olatoye ignored questions abou🐠t her role in the lead-testing scandal.
On Tuesday, the city’s Department of Investigation revealed that Ola🅠toye put thousands of kids at risk of contracting lead poisoning by signing federal documents claiming NYCHA had conducted c🙈ritical lead tests in 55,000 apartments — even though it had not.