By Robert F. Worth, The New York Times
A day after two police officers were critically injured in a car accident in Queens, they lay on life support yesterday at Jamaica Hospital Center, with family members and friends praying by their bedsides.
The officers, Sgt. Dorian Burrell, 36, and Officer Elaine Mamolite, 26, both suffered severe brain injuries in the crash on Wednesday night, said Dr. Jam Ghajar, the hospital’s chief of neurosurgery. He said that it was too early to give a prognosis, but that patients in such cases often remained in a coma for a week or two.
“It’s really wait and see,” Dr. Ghajar said. “It could go either way.”
The accident took place about 9 p.m. on Wednesday as the officers responded to a call for help from another officer who was chasing an armed man on foot in Ridgewood, the police said. The cruiser was southbound on Fresh Pond Road, its lights flashing and siren wailing, when a station wagon traveling eastward on 71st Avenue struck it on the right side. The force of the crash caused the officers’ car to spin into a city bus that was stopped at a traffic light, police officials said.
Yesterday, friends and fellow police officers descended on the hospital, as the officers’ families waited in the intensive care unit.
The two officers had been working together for only a short time and did not know each other well, said Officer Dana Salemi, a friend of Officer Mamolite’s who attended the police academy with her and was at the hospital yesterday.
Officer Mamolite, who was driving the car at the time of the accident, joined the force last July and was assigned in January to the 104th Precinct, Officer Salemi said.
“She always wanted to be a cop,” Officer Salemi said. “She loves the job.”
Officer Mamolite, who is unmarried, has two older brothers and a younger sister. They were all at the hospital yesterday with their mother, Officer Salemi said.
“You can tell it’s hard, but they’re trying to be strong,” she said. “She’s loved by a lot of people.”
Another fellow officer who is one of Officer Mamolite’s neighbors in East Northport, on Long Island, emerged from the hospital yesterday afternoon looking shaken.
“She’s a great person, a rookie - just a nice young lady,” said the officer, who declined to give his name.
Sgt. Burrell joined the force eight years ago and became a sergeant in December 2002, said Robert Mladinich, a spokesman for the Sergeants Benevolent Association. She is married, with a 16-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son, and also lives on Long Island, Mr. Mladinich said.
“She’s extremely well liked and respected,” he said.
The driver of the station wagon, a woman, suffered minor injuries and was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center, along with the driver of the bus, who suffered back and neck injuries.
It is not clear whether the police cruiser or the station wagon ran a red light, the police said, and the accident is still under investigation. The station wagon driver has not been arrested, and a law enforcement official said it appeared unlikely that any criminality was involved.
The armed man who was being chased, Miguel Rodriguez, was awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court last night on charges of resisting arrest and criminal trespass, said Patrick Clark, a spokesman for the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown. He was arrested in the bathroom of a bodega on Myrtle Avenue, where he had tried to hide from the officer who had confronted him about the gun, a law enforcement official said.