Hey guys,
I just got back from a Columbia U journalism conference with my high school. While we were there, we went to Greenwich to walk around, eat, et cetera.
Here's my interpretation:
We (15 or so kids) were walking along, looking for a restaurant. All of a sudden, we hear about nine bangs ahead of us and to the right. I stood there for a second and just listened. The shots weren't loud at all (sounded as loud as... I don't know, like a .22 Short), so I assumed we were somewhat safe. Then I was like, "Guys, those were gunshots," or something like that. Then we all just BOLTED into a CVS which was behind us. We all went to the back and just waited. Fast forward five minutes; there were police cars everywhere. Finally, we went outside to look. It turns out it happened ONE BLOCK from where we were. It was very surreal. We had no idea just how close it was.
When we got the cabs to go back to the hotel, we just kind of laughed it off, assuming it was one bad drug dealer shooting another bad drug dealer.
The next morning, we read the NY Post and find out that it was an ex-Marine who shoot a bartender/manager of a restaurant, and two UNARMED volunteer police officers, before armed police shot him. They found another handgun (a 1911 of some sort), and ~100 rounds in a bag.
I guess the moral of the story is that if you hear any kind of a gunshot, no matter how quiet or far away it may seem, run like hell in the opposite direction.
Here's the Post story:
http://http://www.nypost.com/seven/03152007/news/regionalnews/slay_rampage_in_the_village_regionalnews_brad_hamilton__eric_lenkowitz_and_larry_celona.htm?page=0
I just got back from a Columbia U journalism conference with my high school. While we were there, we went to Greenwich to walk around, eat, et cetera.
Here's my interpretation:
We (15 or so kids) were walking along, looking for a restaurant. All of a sudden, we hear about nine bangs ahead of us and to the right. I stood there for a second and just listened. The shots weren't loud at all (sounded as loud as... I don't know, like a .22 Short), so I assumed we were somewhat safe. Then I was like, "Guys, those were gunshots," or something like that. Then we all just BOLTED into a CVS which was behind us. We all went to the back and just waited. Fast forward five minutes; there were police cars everywhere. Finally, we went outside to look. It turns out it happened ONE BLOCK from where we were. It was very surreal. We had no idea just how close it was.
When we got the cabs to go back to the hotel, we just kind of laughed it off, assuming it was one bad drug dealer shooting another bad drug dealer.
The next morning, we read the NY Post and find out that it was an ex-Marine who shoot a bartender/manager of a restaurant, and two UNARMED volunteer police officers, before armed police shot him. They found another handgun (a 1911 of some sort), and ~100 rounds in a bag.
I guess the moral of the story is that if you hear any kind of a gunshot, no matter how quiet or far away it may seem, run like hell in the opposite direction.
Here's the Post story:
Two auxiliary cops and a bartender were shot dead last night during a gun battle that raged through the streets of Greenwich Village.
At least 30 shots were fired during the mayhem - which included cops in radio cars speeding along busy sidewalks packed with New Yorkers and tourists enjoying the spring-like weather.
The wild pursuit ended when police shot and killed the gunman on Bleecker Street outside the Village Tannery.
The carnage came only 24 hours after two NYPD officers were seriously injured in attacks in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Last night's shootout began at 9:23 p.m., when the gunman, identified as David Garvin, in his 50s, walked into De Marco's Pizzeria and Restaurant at 146 West Houston St. at MacDougal Street, disguised with a phony beard, a police source said.
Garvin began talking to the bartender. Suddenly, he fired 15 bullets at the unidentified man - killing him - then ran outside, dropping a black messenger bag filled with 100 rounds of ammunition and another gun, police and witnesses said.
As Garvin ran, he came upon two auxiliary cops on Sullivan Street, north of Bleecker.
Apparently fearing the auxiliary cops, both in uniform, would shoot him, the gunman pulled out a 9 mm semiautomatic and fired a bullet into the head of one of the volunteers. He shot the other in the chest.
Auxiliary cops are unarmed and are not issued bulletproof vests.
The one shot in the head died at the scene. The other died at St. Vincent's Hospital.
They were identified as Nicholas Pekaro, 28, and Eugene Marshalik, an NYU student and Russian immigrant who was two weeks shy of his 20th birthday.
The NYPD said college students living in the city can serve as auxiliary cops to earn college credits.
After shooting the officers, the gunman doubled back - running south along Sullivan Street, then turning onto Bleecker, police said.
"I saw cops - anywhere from eight to 10 of them - chasing him," said Erin De Losier, 31, who watched from her apartment window.
One officer tackled Garvin, but he fought off the cop and threw him to the ground, witnesses said.
"A cop tried to wrestle him to the ground, but he punched the officer in the head," said José Ochoa, 27, of Manhattan.
Ochoa and two friends then hid behind a parked car as bullets whizzed past them.
"I was paralyzed," Ochoa said.
As some cops ran after the gunman on foot, other officers in two marked patrol cars jumped the curb and joined the chase.
"The cops were in a patrol car and following him up on the curb," said Ariel Trybuch, 27, who was having dinner outside Pancito's Restaurant at MacDougal and Bleecker streets. "Then we heard the first pop."
Two officers and a sergeant finally caught up with the gunman in front of the Village Tannery at 173 Bleecker St. and bullets started flying, a police official told The Post.
"It was a spray of bullets," Trybuch said. "We ran inside the restaurant. It was about 10 seconds of gunfire."
Tony Uraga, 22, who works at Pizza Box across the street, at 176 Bleecker, said that when the cops caught up to the gunman, they shouted at him, "Drop the gun! Drop the gun!"
Uraga said the killer ignored the cops' pleas.
"They just shot him," he said. "They shot him four or five times. The guy dropped with his face down. There was a gun by his body."
Garvin was pronounced dead at the scene.
Another witness, a block away on Sullivan Street, initially heard at least 10 shots.
"As soon as the shots started, people started to run for cover," said the woman, who did not want to be identified. "It was crazy."
Jeff Sears, 48, said the gunman was "full of bullets" once cops were done with him.
"There was a dead guy lying face down on the sidewalk," he said. "There was blood everywhere. Within minutes, there were cops everywhere."
Dozens of police officers closed off several blocks around the crime scenes as restaurant patrons and local residents streamed into the streets following the shootings.
A woman who has lived in the building above De Marco's for 10 years said the eatery attracts "unpleasant people."
"They look sketchy," she said. "They are not the normal neighborhood people. They're smoking and throwing their [cigarette] butts all over the place."
Other residents described De Marco's as a combination of a pizza stand, bar, restaurant and karaoke house.
Alexandra Hart, 34, who also lives upstairs, said, "There's definitely something strange going on down there, but they make good food."
Hart said she has only had pleasant interactions with the bartenders at De Marco's.
"Everyone has always been super nice," she said.
"I would never have expected it at De Marco's."
On Tuesday night, rookie cop Angel Cruz was stabbed through the skull on a platform of the Broadway Junction subway station in East New York by an ex-con he had stopped for smoking.
Despite his injuries, he managed to draw his weapon and bring down his crazed assailant. Cruz was expected to survive.
In Harlem, Officer Robert Tejada was shot and wounded in a cafe trying to arrest a thug brandishing a stolen Colt .45.
The officer was injured but his life was saved by his bulletproof vest.
The gunman was shot to death by Tejada's fellow officers.
The two auxiliary cops shot last night were the first to die on duty since Jan. 29, 1989, when two auxiliary sergeants were killed by a drunken driver in The Bronx.
Noel Faide and Larry Cohen had been investigating an abandoned car on the New England Thruway when they were struck and killed by a car driven by Jorge Valentin.
Two off-duty Bronx auxiliaries also died heroically.
Auxiliary Officer Milton Clarke was shot and killed by a suspect he tried to stop from leaving the scene of a shooting on Dec. 1, 1993.
The NYPD's Auxiliary Police Program is a volunteer unit made up of about 4,000 men and women, according to the department's Web site.
http://http://www.nypost.com/seven/03152007/news/regionalnews/slay_rampage_in_the_village_regionalnews_brad_hamilton__eric_lenkowitz_and_larry_celona.htm?page=0