By Joseph Ostapiuk
Staten Island Advance, N.Y.
NEW YORK — NYPD Detective Dominick Libretti received a hero’s sendoff Monday afternoon when he was released from Staten Island University Hospital in Ocean Breeze, 11 days after he was shot and valiantly defended his fellow officers from oncoming fire.
Dozens of officers, officials and staff lined the main entrance of the hospital as Libretti was escorted out of the facility in a wheelchair alongside his family. Nurses inside the hospital drew a heart on a piece of paper that was placed against a window overlooking the detective’s exit as a final sendoff to the heroic cop.
His right leg was bandaged after officials said he underwent reconstructive surgery that will require extensive physical therapy and a prolonged healing process. Libretti was assisted into a waiting van before leaving the campus nearly two weeks after he was first rushed to the hospital’s emergency room.
“A lot of surgeries, a lot of pain, but he’s a very strong individual with a great family that got him through it,” said Dr. Michael Cooper, director of the hospital’s burn unit.
Libretti, a decorated 10-year veteran of the department, was part of a team executing a narcotics search warrant at a New Springville home at around 6 a.m. on Jan. 20 when shots were fired from a bedroom at the location, officials said.
A bullet struck Libretti in an area of the lower leg populated by large vessels, according to the department, but additional shots were blocked by a ballistics shield that he held up to protect his fellow officers, who returned fire and injured the shooter, identified by authorities as 39-year-old Nelson Pizarro.
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Libretti’s wound required immediate attention to slow blood loss, and he was quickly transported to the hospital, where he underwent surgery.
Pizarro has been charged with attempted murder, criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment.
Pizarro has an extensive criminal record that includes his arrest about 15 years ago in connection with a major NYPD bust in which cops seized $350,000 in cash, 4.3 pounds of cocaine, and nabbed 23 people who comprised a drug ring that stretched from Staten Island to Pennsylvania, according to authorities.
He also pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a weapon in state Supreme Court in St. George, in January 2005, according to court documents.
Anthony Marshall, 40, the subject of the narcotics warrant, faces seven counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance and one count of criminal sale of a controlled substance near school grounds. Prosecutors allege Marshall sold drugs to undercover cops on seven occasions at locations on Staten Island, including once on school grounds.
Marshall was not charged in connection with the shooting.
(c)2022 Staten Island Advance, N.Y.