By: Don Driggers

For the first time, ex-NYPD officer turned demonologist Chris DeFlorio is opening up about the chilling experience that became one of his last assignments in uniform: ridding the 32nd Precinct in Harlem of a malevolent spirit that had reportedly haunted officers for years. As the New York Post first reported, DeFlorio, 54, now works full-time with his wife, Harmony, tackling the supernatural, but this mission in 2020 was eerily reminiscent of a scene from Ghostbusters.

The terrifying ordeal began on May 8, 2020, when a rookie cop reported a strange encounter in the precinct’s fourth-floor bunk room. “He was working a midnight shift,” DeFlorio recalled. “He went upstairs to rest, and while sleeping on the couch, he felt something walking behind him. Then, he felt gripping on his legs — something was holding him down and bouncing on the couch.”

After freeing himself, the officer turned on the lights and found the room empty — until he saw a shadowy figure moving toward the door. Word of the incident quickly spread throughout the precinct, as the New York Post first reported, stirring memories for veteran officers who had experienced similar paranormal events.

Byron Pena, another retired officer, told the New York Post he had his own eerie encounter nearly two decades earlier. During a blackout in the early 2000s, Pena slept in the bunk room but was unable to rest, feeling a presence he couldn’t explain. “It was just so uncomfortable. I kept looking at the door, I kept looking at the window … there was a presence there,” Pena said. The experience left him too petrified to ever enter the room again during his 28-year career.

Called in by precinct administrators, DeFlorio faced the alleged demon during the early hours of May 10, 2020. “When I walked into that bunk room, this was something that you couldn’t sense with your five senses,” he recalled. “You had that feeling when you were in the presence of evil, and that was it. I knew the officer wasn’t exaggerating … I didn’t know if I was going to come out alive.”

The exorcism involved traditional rituals: DeFlorio doused the room with holy water, burned frankincense, and recited ancient Catholic prayers. As the New York Post first reported, after an hour, the atmosphere in the room shifted. “You could walk directly into that room and it felt like a different room. There was a light feeling to it,” he said.

Since that night, neither DeFlorio nor any officers have reported further disturbances in the precinct, confirming the exorcism’s success. “It was successful,” he told the New York Post.

DeFlorio’s career trajectory is unusual: after 20 years with the NYPD, he left the force in 2021 to work full-time with his wife Harmony, specializing in demonology and supernatural investigations. “When you’re fighting something demonic, you’ve gotta come in with something good from God,” he explained. Together, the couple has tackled a range of haunted locations across New York, but few cases have been as personal or as intense as the 32nd Precinct exorcism.