Sarah Garland
The New York Sun
NEW YORK — Police shot and killed a man they said was wielding a broken bottle as a weapon in Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood early yesterday, six hours after police in a separate incident nearby shot and injured a man leaving a baby shower.
The shootings came amid protests after police recently fatally shot a teenager, Khiel Coppin, who aimed a hairbrush at them, and a week before the first anniversary of the shooting of an unarmed Queens man, Sean Bell, that led to a shake-up in police undercover operations.
“The community feels that they’re getting gunned down by the police,” the founder of the James E. Davis Stop Violence Foundation, Geoffrey Davis, said in response to yesterday’s incidents following a demonstration he led to protest Coppin’s death. “This is a crisis.”
A spokesman for the police department, Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, noted that fatal police shootings have dropped since the 1970s after reaching 54 in 1973. Fatal shootings hovered in the 20s and 30s over the next two decades, with a high of 41 in 1990. In 2005, there were nine, and last year, there were 13. This year, there have been 10 fatal police shootings so far, including the one yesterday morning.
“For eight of the last 11 years, the NYPD has had the lowest ratio of fatal shootings per 1,000 officers when compared to other major cities,” he said.
In the first shooting yesterday, police fired at two men at around 1 a.m., near a catering hall on Atlantic Avenue, El Barandillo, where they had been attending a baby shower. Police said a dispute, possibly involving gang rivalries, had erupted as the baby shower came to a close and the manager of the catering hall had tried to expel the partygoers. When they resisted, the manager, Omar Marquez, 26, pulled a gun from his waistband and fired into the ceiling of the hall, police said.
Moments later, Mr. Marquez fired into the crowd of partygoers as they stood in front of the hall, hitting three people and killing one of them, according to police. As the crowd scattered, one man paused in the middle of Atlantic Avenue and began firing at Mr. Marquez, according to police officials, who said the incident was captured on surveillance video. The man, whom police identified as Wallace Davis, 22, then fled, bolting around a police car that had just arrived at the scene.
Two police officers and one sergeant jumped out of the car to chase Mr. Davis. The sergeant fired five shots, and one hit Mr. Davis in the leg. As Mr. Davis fell near Hendrix Avenue, dropping the gun, police said his friend, Emmanuel Hickinson, 21, stopped to help him - and picked up the gun. The sergeant fired another two shots, missing both men, before police caught up to them a block away and arrested them. Mr. Hickinson allegedly tossed the gun - a 9mm Lorcin pistol that may have been wrested away from Mr. Marquez earlier - over a fence.
Mr. Davis was treated for his leg injury, and then arrested. Mr. Hickinson was also arrested. Mr. Marquez was in critical condition in Kings County Hospital with three gunshot wounds in his chest, and three in his leg.
Theodore Williams, 21, was allegedly shot in the chest by Mr. Marquez and died at Kings County Hospital. Two others allegedly shot by Mr. Marquez, Jason Garcia, 17, who was hit in the chest, and Darren Francis, 20, who was grazed on the head, were treated at Brookdale Hospital.
All of the men involved had prior criminal histories, and Mr. Davis and Mr. Hickinson have each logged numerous arrests for both firearms and drug charges.
The second incident occurred at about 7 a.m., after a resident of Autumn Avenue, Michael Torres, 33, called police to say his roommate, David Kostovski, 29, whom he called “Dragon,” had stabbed him as he was sleeping.
Five minutes later, two police officers came upon Kostovksi walking shirtless and carrying a broken wine bottle along Grant Avenue. A police officer who witnessed the encounter said Kostovski began approaching the officers, raising the hand with the bottle in it.
A police radio carried by one of the officers caught one yelling: “Drop the knife! Drop the knife!” Kostovksi apparently ignored the command, and a minute later, the officers opened fire from less than 10 feet away, according to police. The officers, who have about four years of experience between the two of them, each shot their firearms six times, police said.
Kotovoski died at the scene, and police said he was still grasping the bottle after he fell to the ground.
Under a new protocol put in place after the Bell shooting, all police officers were tested for alcohol and passed, but Mr. Davis predicted that the latest shootings could fuel more protests in the week to come.
Copyright 2007 The New York Sun, One SL, LLC