March 15, 2007
WITNESS TO THE EXECUTION
Last night, a man who is reported to be a former employee of DeMarco's Pizza, located on the corner of West Houston and MacDougal Streets, shot the restaurant's bartender 15 times in the back after the victim turned to get the man a menu. The gunmen then fled up Sullivan St., followed at a short distance by two unarmed NYPD auxilliary officers, who are akin to neighborhood watch volunteers. The NYPD released video taken by a surveillance camera outside the Childrens Aid Society on Sullivan St. this afternoon.
What the video shows is a man not that intent on escape, but on spilling as much blood as possible in the streets of the West Village before getting himself killed. The video still above points out three main portions of the video. On the left is 28-year-old auxilliary policeman Nicholas Pekearo. He was running up the left side of the street (towards the camera) trailing gunman David Garvin. When Garvin realized he was being followed, he cut right and back across the street to where Pekearo attempted to crouch behind a car. Garvin stood directly over Pekearo as he fired point blank at his prostrated victim over and over. Garvin then ran south (away from the camera) when he spotted Pekearo's partner hiding behind a car. 19-year-old auxilliary cop Yevginny Marshalik was summarily executed in the street by Garvin. At that point, an armed policeman runs up (south/down) the Sullivan firing at Garvin, who returns to the right-hand sidewalk and makes a quick right off Sullivan onto Bleeker Street. Moments later he would emerge from the store he was hiding in and died in a hail of NYPD gunfire.
The video caught on Sullivan St. is unnerving, only because that's not how suspects are supposed to behave. They're not supposed to advance on and execute uniformed officers. The New York Times coverage of the event thus far as been comendable. WNBC's also has been up to date, but filled with as many sketchy details while the story was breaking as outright fraudulent details as the story developed. I'm referring specifically to the local affiliate's slideshow accompanying its story. According to the story, Garvin was shooting a 9mm semiauto handgun that is pictured after it was recovered. In addition to approximately 100 rounds of ammunition, Garvin apparently also was found with a .380 semiauto in his possesion after he was killed. That's great, but the image WNBC includes in its slideshow is that of a .45 caliber 1911 ACP. It's a formidable looking handgun and a far cry from what a .380 semiauto looks like. The caption under the .45 reads,
Regular police officers then shot and killed the gunman, who had a bag with a fake beard, two guns and 100 rounds of ammunition, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said early Thursday. (Above: a gun seized by police).
I'm sure if pressed, WNBC could weasel a bit and say that the parenthetical never indicated that it was the gun seized from Garvin, but just a gun seized at some point in the history of the NYPD. Such weaseling, of course, would be misleading and weak.
NB: Lots of coverage in today's edition of The New York Times. Gunman David Garvin was not a former employee of DeMarco's Pizza as I wrote above. He was a regular of the establishment who had been thrown out more than once in the past for being disruptive. Garvin's profile actually makes him sound like a loser and few people who knew him seemed particularly shocked that his life ended in this fashion.
Sad profiles of the two auxilliary officers murdered by Garvin. They sounded like exceptionally good guys who were well loved. As apparently was Alfredo Romero, the bartender Garvin shot fifteen times inside DeMarco's Pizza.
Tagged: cops, killed, nyc, west villagePosted by Lexiphane at March 15, 2007 11:23 PM
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