Ocaine Has Brought the OCAINE Their Visit to Miami , Well Before·The Delivery Neglected Northern and Eastern Part of INUED from PAGE 7 4 of the Drugs

prices. Levine told Ibanez that he and mineral-rich Andean range. Suarez would be shown the $9 milli on on Since 1977, cocaine has brought the OCAINE their visit to Miami , well before·the delivery neglected northern and eastern part of INUED FROM PAGE 7 4 of the drugs . Bolivia into the economic and political :. half a dozen Colombian syndicates, . The only hitch in the negotiations in Bue- mainstream . All of the country's endemic :: d now he wanted to simplify his oper- nos Aires was the fai lure of Suarez to meet disad vantages- its land locked borders, :=: ons by finding two main bu yers-one of with Levine.lt was to be a sign of the Boliv- inaccessible interior. wretched rural pov- -em Colombian and the other an Ameri- ian 's caution in all stages of the deal. erty, political instability. ingrained govern- :::n. The Bolivian suggested that Suarez " Suarez never exposed himself- we nev- ment corruption. and long-standing tradi- : Jld sell Levine about 1,000 kilos of co- er saw him, or even talked to him directly," tion of contraband-emerged as pillars of :.?: i e base a month. said a OEA agent in Washington . "He strength for the cocaine industry. is was a tar larger amount than the sends everybody, even his own family, out The Chapare. the godforsaken trop1cal had ever thought of handling . A sin- like he does to test the waters. And he re- highland of east-central Bolivia, has ; -e monthly shipment would have sur- mains out of sight. " proved a natural greenhouse for new coca :::ssed the total seizures made in Miami Ibanez returned to Bolivia to consult fur- plantations. The leaves that grow there are :_ •ing all of the previous year. More to the ther with Suarez. Meanwhile, Levine flew too bitterly acid to chew but produce a :::Jint, the agency would have been unable back to Miami to mull over the mind-bog- high-quality base. The dearth of roads -:: ::ome up with the $18 to $20 million nec- gling quantities of cocaine he was being poses no real economic hardship and en- s:sary to show Suarez that it could pur- offered , and to set the stin g operation in sures priv acy. Brigades of machete-wie ld- : ase that much cocaine. Making some motion. ing peasants cut hundreds of miles of : _i ck mental calculations, Levine coun- Until the Buenos Aires meeting, the DEA footpaths. An even larger army of campe- s·ed Ibanez with an offer to initially buy was uncertain just how much cocaine sinos carry fif!y-pound loads of coca = 0 kilos of cocaine base. If that deal went base was be ing smuggled out of Bo livia. leaves along the paths to clandestine lab- -·ough smoothly, he would be ready to As late as 1977, the agency was divided oratories. In fact, the only asphalted high- :::sorb 1,000 kilos a month. In the mean- on whether Peru or Bolivia was the larger way in the Chapare is used by the coca e. Levine invited Ibanez, Suarez. and producer. It now became evident that the growers. mainly to dry their leaves in the - .s son, Roberto Jr., up to Miami to inspect Bolivians had spurted ahead, and that sun before compressing them into bun- - .s organization. his laboratories, even Suarez was the single biggest cocaine dles for the pack carriers. On an average ::>end some time at his home. where they merchant in the world. · day during the harvest season, a four-mile :nuld meet his family and associates. In a very few years, th e cocaine boom stretch of the highway- roughly the dis- ith little haggling. Levine agreed to has radically reshaped the political and tance along Broadway from the edge of _ay $18,000 a kilo , or $9 million fo r the economic geography of Bolivia. For most Harlem to Times Square-is blanketed on :: 0 kilos. Once refined and then sold on of this century- and hundreds of years one side with dehydrating coca leaves -e streets, the shipment would have be!Gre- the nation's meager fortunes and while traffic is diverted to a single lane. .:·ought more than $200 million in 1980 the bulk of its population were linked to the Most of the clandestine cocaine laboratories are now installed in the Beni, the jungle-and-savanna province of northern Bolivia, which is even more isolated and inaccessible than the Chapare. As big as Kansas. the Beni has only about 300,000 inhabitants. There are no paved highways and few roads of any kind. The only economic activity. besides cocaine , is catlle. The livestock, introduced into the province three centuries ago by Jesuit missionar- ies , multiplied into large, wild herds. like Texas longhorns Only in recent years have ranchers built dirt airstrips to transport the butchered cattle to markets 1n La Paz and the Andean tin mines several hundred mi le s southeast . And many of these same tiny airfields now serve as staging points for the sophisticated network that ferries processed and semiprocessed cocaine through Bolivia. across Brazil. into Colombia. and then to Flo rida. The bus iness and banking capital of th1s cocaine trade is Santa Cruz. the main city of eastern Bolivia. It is the gathering place of Colombian and American buyers. and the garrison fo r the army and air-force contingents who offer cocaine smugglers protection and secure contraband routes. Oil , natural gas . and agriculture gave th1s once wild frontier town its first taste of prosperity a decade ago. Cocaine has swathed Santa Cruz wi th a flashy veneer of wealth that se ts it aparl from the rest o! the country_The city's understated Span- · ish colonial downtown d1strict of low-slung white-stucco and red-tile buildings has been encircled With suburban man sio ns evoking Southern Califo rn1a and Palm 64 PENTHOUS£ Beach architecture. The shops are He just looked at me kind of strangely, stocked with the latest stereo and video closed the luggage, and walked back to equipment, most of it contraband financed the plane. " by coca-dollars. Santa Cruz probably has Suarez's bodyguards are mostly Ar- more BMWs and Mercedes per capita gentine, Swiss, Austrian , and South Afri- than any other Latin Amer ican city. Some can nee-fascists. They were trained and policemen patrol in Datsun sports cars, recruited by Klaus Altmann, a former Nazi marred only by sirens on their roofs. SS colonel who found refuge in Bolivia Like virtually all other Bolivian cocaine more than thirty years ago from charges barons, Roberto Suarez is a man of these that he had slaughtered hundreds of hinterlands. From his family, who con- French Resistance members and deport- trolled the country's rubber trade at the ed thousands of Jews while he was Gesta- turn of the century, Suarez inherited some po chief in the French city of Lyons. modest cattle ranches in the Beni, the The guards are spread over a dozen dif- Chapare. and Santa Cruz. He was not ferent locations in northern and eastern much of a cattleman, but sen t his son. Ro- Bolivia because Suarez rarely spends berto Jr ., to Texas A & Min the hopes that more than two days in any one place. He he would improve the family ranching op- does sit still in Santa Cruz whenever a erations. The father's limited farming acu- large deal is in the offing. And it was there, men was further hampered by his in one of his large mansions, that he field- weakness for gambling. A cousin remem- ed phone calls from Marcelo Ibanez dur- bers him losing $60,000 in one night at a ing the negotiations with Levine in Buenos La Paz casino eight years ago. Aires and Miami. Suarez was, however, an accom- After being briefed by Levine on his re- plished pilot of small planes, and devel- turn to Florida, the DEA decided to finance oped a profound knowledge of the one of its most expensive undercover op- geography of the Bolivian interior. By the erations. A three-bedroom house was early 1970s, he was flying contraband rented during May 1980 in Fort Laud er- goods into the country from Brazil and Ar- dale, just across from the beach, and was gentina. He also began selling small quan- stocked with Johnny Walker and Tan- tities of cocaine base abroad, usually no queray gin, and wired with a stereo for the more than ten or twenty kilos at a time. salsa music that Suarez supposedly en- When the boom came after 1977, Suarez joyed. Two Lincoln Continental limousines was far better positioned than most of the were leased. Women agents were other small smugglers. He had contacts in brought over to Miami to act as maids and customs, the police, and the armed escorts for the Bolivians . A warehouse in forces. Rather than simply expand his co- Miami was outfitted as a cocaine laborato- caine production, he hit upon the notion of ry with funnels, cookers, and an agent. acting as a middleman between the many Paul Sennett, as its chief chemist. Final ly, small Bolivian smugglers and the big Co- $9 million in hundred-dollar bill s was bor- lombian buyers. The idea appealed to cor- rowed from the Federal Reserve, and de- rupt military and police officials because it posited in six giant safety-deposit boxes at made the cocaine trade more manage- a Miami suburban bank to impress upon able. And it made sense to the smaller traf- the Bolivians that the Levine organization fickers because the arrangement relieved was prepared to pay cash on delivery. them of the expense of bribing the security Mike Levine installed himself in the forces and transporting the cocaine beach house , along with Frances John- abroad . By now, Suarez controls fully half son, a young , attractive Spanish-speaking of the cocaine smuggled out of Bolivia. agent from the DEA's San Francisco of- Until a few years ago , friends described fice, who posed as his wife . Richie Fiano. him as being tall, robust, jovial, and gener- a short, chunky, bearded agent in his early ous. Nowadays. at close to fifty years of thirties, was designated as Levine's age, he is thin, almost emaciated , a heavy chauffeur and chief lieutenant in the Flori- smoker of marijuana and cocaine base, da area. After a number of telephone calls and a social recluse who surrounds him- to Bolivia, it was agreed that Ibanez, self with an army of bodyguards, accord- Suarez, and his son would arrive in Miami ing to the few friends who occasionally on May 15. catch a glimpse of him . "Myself, Mike, and a couple of other "I last saw him about a year ago," re- agents, we go out to Miami airport early called a cattleman who grew up with that morning to pick up the Bolivians on Suarez in the Beni. "He flew into my ranch the flight from Santa Cruz," recounts unannounced and walked up to the house Fiano. "B.ut the only guy who shows up is with two bodyguards-foreigners, speak- Ibanez. He gives us some reason or an- ing German. I hardly recognized him, he other why Suarez couldn't make it. So we was so skinny. And he didn't make much say no big deal , and we drive Ibanez back sense. He said he fe lt badly that he owed to the house . me money for such a long time, and then "Now, we thought we had rented a pret- he opened this big piece of luggage. It ty impressive place, " continues Fiano, an was filled with fifty- and hundred-dollar Italian-American from the Bronx. "Hell, bills. and he said there was $50,000. I we're paying $2,500 a month. It's a great looked at him like he was crazy, and said: neighborhood. The house is big, has its 'Roberto, this has to be a mistake. I never own swimming pool, and it's right across lent you any money. ' And it was the truth. from the ocean. But Ibanez looks at the 165 place like it's good enough for the hired would need for its return trip to Florida, help. And he tells us that back on his ranch and to receive precise instructions. He in Bolivia our swimming pool could pass was told by Suarez that e Bolivian pilot for a small duck pond ." would meet the plane when it made an in- The DEA agents didn't quite know what termediary stop in the Brazilian Amazon to make of Ibanez. A couple of inches un- city of Mana us and guide the flight into the der six feet tall, thin, clean-cut, with wavy- Bolivian jungle. Suarez agreed that his . dark hair, and in his late thirties, he had the emissaries in Miami would collect the $9 ' air of a successful young businessman. million once the plane had taken ofi from ' His mood oscillated sharply between su- Bolivia with 500 kilos of cocaine base. preme self-confidence and deep anxiety. Early the next day, May 16, just twenty- "We were planning on the party with the four hours after his arrival, Ibanez and the girls, maybe a quick trip to Las Vegas, DEA agents drove to a small airfield near even a couple of Broadway shows, " said Fort Lauderdale to begin the trip to South Fiano. "But Ibanez didn 't want any of it . America. Ibanez was startled by the poor Wouldn't even touch a drop of booze . He quality of the plane. The Convair was just wanted to leave as soon as possible." about forty years old, and he commented Ibanez spent most of the day closeted in to Fiano that it was the kind of aircraft used the beach house on the phone with in Bolivia to transport meat. "We were Suarez in Santa Cruz. He emerged only to worried that such a low-class plane might take a brief drive along the waterfront with cause us some credibility problems, but it Levine, Fiano, and Pepe, a Spanish- really was the only aircraft we could af- speaking agent. He didn't even ask to see ford," recalls Fiano. "Ibanez said to us he the $9 million or the cocaine laboratory. couldn't understand how we were willing He turned down a suggestion that the to risk $9 million in cocaine with this piece Suarez gang deliver the cocaine base in of shit." the Brazilian Amazon or Colombia and in- Carrying Ibanez, Fiano, and the three sisted that the pickup be made in Bolivia. pilots , the Convair took ofi from Florida, At one point, he demanded that Frances, refueled in Puerto Rico, and laid over in the woman posing as Levine's wife. fly Barbados. Ibanez made several phone down with him to the rendezvous point in calls to Suarez. and then, without any real Bolivia as a sign of the Americans' good explanation, told the DEA agents that it faith. When Levine demurred, Ibanez then would take several more days before the suggested that Fiano come along, pre- cocaine would be ready for a pickup in tending to be Levine's son , because Bolivia. The next four days were spent Suarez would be sending his own son to sunbathing and deep-sea fishing in Bar- the meeting in the Bolivian jungles. bados. Finally, on May 20, the Convair At least one of the agents found this be- took off again and landed that afternoon in havior peculiar, and suspected that the Manaus. At a downtown hotel. in a swel- Suarez people might be setting a trap of tering room so small that only one person their own. The agent objected that Fiano could stand up at a time, the Convair's was only a dozen years younger than Le- passengers we re joined by Renato Roca vine, and could not possibly pass for his Suarez, the thirty-year-old nephew of Ro- son. But Ibanez, claiming that he was an x- berto Suarez. He was an experienced pi- ious to see the deal go through, said he lot and brought along aer ial maps of the was prepared to lie to Suarez, who in any landing zone in Bolivia. event had not met Levine and did not · The destination was to be an isolated know what he looked like. ranch carved out of the jungle in the Beni. "I argued that Ibanez was leveling with Roca Suarez marked ofi an airstrip on the us," said Fiano. "In fact, !thought he had edge of a large lake, called Rogoaguado, bought the whole story hook, line, and as the site of the rendezvous with the co- sinker. He was just nervous. I thought caine shipment. The dirt runway, howev- maybe he had a personal stake in seeing er, was shorter than the minimum this thing through . He was the guy who requirement of the Convair. One of the had set the whole deal up for Suarez, and DEA pilots pointed out that while the strip maybe he was thinking that if it went might be long enough to land on, it would through he would move up in the organi- be difiicult for the plane, fully loaded and zation. Anyway, he did seem nervous. He refueled, to take off again. was getting along best with Pepe, maybe "We argued it back and forth," said because Pepe's Spanish was so good. So Fiano. "But in the end we figured , what the that night Pepe took him to dinner, calmed hell, we 're this far along, and we gotta go him down, and assured him there would for it." be no problems." The next morning, the Convair set out After dinner, a final meeting took place for Bolivia. The pilots filed a flight plan to in the beach house to sort out the details of the Bolivian air-force control tower in San- the flight to Bolivia. Three pilots, U.S . mili- ta Cruz. Then. following Roca Suarez's in- tary veterans working for the DEA , came structions, they informed Santa Cruz that to the house and talked to Ibanez about they were turning back to Brazil because the route to Bolivia, the terrain, and the of technical problems. But instead, they length of the clandestine airstrip where the flew at low altitude toward the secluded landing would be made. Ibanez placed a ranch in northern Bolivia. Roca Suarez last phone call to Roberto Suarez to inform told Fiano that they could probably remain him of the type of aviation fuel the plane an hour on the ground before Santa Cr.uz wondered why they had lost rad io contact through. " pounds of cocaine base and the fuel tanks and sent out search planes tor them. In less than an hour. another small loaded, we were carryi!lg a lot more It was a rough landing, and the hydrau- plane landed. It was carrying dozens of weight. We started down the runway, hit- lic line controlling the nose wheel was black, plastic garbage bags filled with co- ting all those potholes, and we just missed damaged. Initially startled by the large caine base in light-brown powder form. the lake at the end of the stnp . A little less group of Indians running toward the craft, Ibanez explained that the delay was due to wind under the wings, and we would have Fiano relaxed a bit wheil he saw them the relatively poor quality of the initial ship- nosedived right into the water ." carting large gasoline drums to refuel the ment. This load, he said. was not quite 400 Back in Miami, Mike Levine had already Conva1r. Within minutes. a smal l. single- kilos, but the quality was supposed to be met with another Suarez henchman, Al- engine plane circled above and then land- excellent. fredo Gutierrez. and had shown him the ed. Ibanez went over to talk to the pilot. Then, handing Fiano a kilo of pure white money in the bank safety-deposit boxes who was Roberto Suarez . Jr .. and brought cocaine, Ibanez said: "I want you to take that would be turned over as soon as the him over to meet Fianu and the other this present to Mike to show him that our Convair flew out of Bolivia. Gutierrez, a agents. Short, thin . dark-complexioned, word is good, that we're friends. and dark, very stout, middle-aged man, was a and in his mid-twenties, the son of Roberto we're sorry for any problems along the fo rmer president of the Santa Cruz Cham- Suarez spoke a perfect Te xas dialect, way. We want this arrangement to work." ber of Commerce and owner of a fleet of which he had learned during his time at Roberto Jr , who had been monitoring small airplanes in Bolivia. He was accom- Texas A & M. the radio, reported that the Bolivian Air panied in Florida by Roberto Gasser, son There would be a short delay, no more Force had sent out planes to search for the of one of the wealthiest Santa Cruz indus- than an hour, he explained, before the Convair and that a takeoff would have to trialists. shipment of cocaine bas e arrived. Mean- be made quickly. After hearing from both Ibanez in Santa while, the Indians would form a bucket bri- "Now Ibanez says to me that he's going Cruz and Fiano en route from Bolivia that gade to refuel the Convair. back to Santa Cruz, and to please, please, the cocaine base was being flown back to "At this point, we're not only worried as soon as we were in the air, call Miami Florida, Levine picked up Gutierrez and that the Bolivian Air Force is going to catch and have the money released." reca lls Gasser at their Miami hotel and drove up with us," said Fiano. "We're also con- Fiano. "He let us know that he was way them ove r to the ban k. John Lawler, an- cerned that this 1s just one big hummer. out on a limb, that he just hoped every- other DEA agent posing as a bank security Now, over in Miami, you can go out and thing would work out okay. He pleaded guard, welcomed them. As Gutierrez went hum ali day for a guy who says he'll bring with us not to rip l1 im off. t guess it was at into the vault and placed the key in a safe- you a kilo of coke and never does, and it's that point that I was really rel ieved. I smiled ty-deposit box, Levine and Lawler drew no big thing. But for this operation, we had and I told him he didn't have a thing to wor- their guns and arrested the two Bolivians. spent like thousands and thousands on ry about. Meanwhile, in South America, Fiano the plane, the beach house. the cars, the " Our only problem was taking off." con- and the three pilots made a refueling stop agents. It was going to be one big embar- tinued Fiano. "The hydraulic system was in Manaus and then fl ew to Barbados. rassment if these guys didn't come ruptured on the landing. With the 854 There, the plane's hydraulic line severed

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11111 completely, Torcmg me crew 10 wan sever- wave OJ aoverse puOIICity and strong pres- al days until repairs could be made. It sure from the American government. wasn 't until May 25-nine days after the A few days earlier, the cocaine mafia Convair began its journey to Bol ivia-that had turned over $800,000 to Gene ral the DEA agents arrived back in Florida Hugo Ech everria, commander of the army with their cache of drugs. garrison in Santa Cruz, according to mi li- The seizure of the cocaine proved far tary and drug-enforcement officials. Fur- easier than the legal and diplomatic mother payments we re made to other ranking rass involved in bring ing any Suarez asso- military officers, along with promi ses of ciates to trial. The arrest of Guti errez much more money in the months ahead . sparked a flood of prot est letters from Bo- On July 17, 1980. General Garcia Meza livia. Cabinet ministers, generals, and in- led the 189th coup in Bolivia's 157-year- dustrialists sent documentation attesting ol d history as an independent state. It was to his cha racte r and honesty. Roberto one of the more brutal mil itary takeovers. Gasser was not formally charged, and Thousands of people were arrested, and within days of his arrest, was released . numerous cases of torture and ki llings ·'The thing is his name never came up were reported. Although the ostensible throughout the case," said a DEA agent, motivation behind the coup was the fear now back in Bolivia. "He just showed up that a left-wing civilian government wou ld with Gutierrez at the last moment to pick take power, it quickly became apparent up the money. In court, he stuck to his sto- that th e cocaine bonanza played an even ry th at Gutie rrez owed him a debt and had greater role . Paramilitary groups swept asked him to accompany him to the bank through government buildings burning all to pick it up." records of drug cases. The military offi- Gutierrez was indicted on charges of cers most suspected of having close links conspiring to smuggle in and distribute the with the coca ine traffic were given key seized cocaine. A judge initi ally set his bail government positions. at $3 million. But he was then allowed to Besides General Garcia Meza. who plea before U.S. District Judge Alcee emerged as president. Army Colonel Lu is Hastings, who reduced bail to $1 mil li on. Arce Gomez, a cousin of Roberto Suarez , in July 1980, Gutierrez's son presented was appointed minister of interior. Be- two cashier's checks totaling $1 million to sides his family connection with Suarez, the clerk of the court. His father wal ke d out the colonel had an important stake in co- of detention, and fled to Bolivia. (L ast De- caine traffic through his joint ownership of cember, Judge Hastings wa s indicted on a fleet of airplanes in th e Santa Cruz area. charges of obstructing justice and con- A private plane owned by Army Colonel spiracy to solicit bribes from defendants in Norberta Salomon, a partner in Col. Arce exchange for favorable treatment in his Gomez's aircraft company, made a forced courtroom. Hastings fell into a trap when a landing in the Beni in February 1980, and retired FB I agent posing as a racketeer police sources said more than 1, 500 appearing before th e judge offered him a pounds of cocaine base were found on $150,000 bribe.) board. Thanks to high-level intervention, More than a year was to pass before Colonel Salomon was cleared and was re- Gutierrez and then Marcelo Ibanez were assigned as army attache at Bolivia·s em- brought back to Miami to stand tri al. In the bassy in Venezuela. meantime, Bolivia became the first coun- The Un ited States reacted to the Garcia try in the world to fall under the contro l of a Meza coup by withholding recognition of government fronting for a drug mafia. his government, scaling down the size of " Before the sting operation, we had the American embassy in La Paz and re- some strong suspicions that the Suarez calling the ambassador, and rescinding people were well connected to the mil itary almost all economic aid to Bolivia . Then, and political power structure in Bolivia ," when the military reg ime's strong links said DEA official. " But we didn't expect with the cocaine trade became obvious, the whole damn Bolivian establishment to Wa shington cut off the American anti-drug surtace behind them." program in Bolivia. Just a few weeks after the DEA's scam With the election of President Reagan, against Suarez, a small gro up of Santa the Bolivian government made an attempt Cruz industrialists met at a social club in to restore ties with Washington by carrying their city with General Lu is Garcia Meza, out a cosmetic crackdown on the drug commander of th e Bolivian Army. The trade. In February 1981, Garcia Meza businessmen, led by Erwin Gasser, forced Arce Gomez to resign as minister whose son Roberto had been arre sted by of interior. In the following weeks , dozens th e DEA in Miami, were there to convince of small cocaine smugglers were arrest- the general to carry out a military coup ed, and numerous small drug shipments against the tottering civilian government in were seized. La Paz. A suitcase containing more than But only a few days later, a gathering of $1 million was passed across the table to the largest cocaine traffickers in the coun- Garcia Meza, according to pa rticipants at try were told the government's true inten- the meeting. The money included contri- tions . According to drug-enforcement bu tions from Roberto Suarez and other officials, the meeting took place in a Santa traffickers, who were concerned that the Cruz mansion in late February 1981. For civilian government was about to clamp diplomatic reasons, it was said, the gov- down on the cocaine trade because of a ernment felt constrained to launch a highly publicized roundup of drug smugglers. It til recently, cocaine was widely viewed as "A lot of the profits were being re invested was suggested that the major cocaine fig- an American problem, and a boon for Bo- here. It was an important source of capital. ures transfer most of their drug operations livia. The refined powder was too expen- But in the end, it has corrupted everything. away from the more visible Santa Cruz re- sive to be peddled in Bolivia. And it They have a stranglehold over us." gion to more secluded zones in the Cha- became a buoyant factor in the economy Even Erwin Gasser, who is reputed to pare and the Beni. And to ensure at a time when legal exports were in the have played an important ro le in financing continued government protection, in- doldrums. the 1980 coup that brought the military-ci- creased payments to high officials were Only a relatively small portion of the esti- vilian cocaine mafia to power, now sounds demanded. As a first contribution, half a mated $800 million to $ i billion a year in thoroughly dejected. His sugarcane farm million dollars was collected from the au- cocaine sales was being repatriated to and refinery-the biggest such operation dience. Bolivia. But it was enough to stoke a na- in the country-is reportedly in dire finan- The farcical campaign to stamp out the tionwide boom in real estate , contraband cial straits because of the precipitous de- cocaine trade ended a few months later, retail trade, and other businesses. Until cline in the peso and the far more fa iling to convince Washington. Not even last year, the dollar was actually being competitive wages offered to peasants by the lucrative profits from drug smuggling sold more cheaply by black-market mon- coca growers. could make up for the deepening crisis in ey-exchange dealers than by the official "The military government has been a Bolivia's legal economy and the failure of banks. Peasants were paying off their total disappointment, " said Gasser, at his the government to attract international debts with wads of crisp dollar bi lls in- downtown Santa Cruz office, a few hours cred its because of its lamentable image stead of pesos . before flying to Miami for his annual medi· abroad. So in September i 98 i, another But now the economic crisis has cal checkup. "They keep changing cabi- military commander, General Celso Torre- reached tidal-wave proportions. Cocaine net ministers so quickly that by the time we lio Villa, became president. dealers have just about satiated their ap- can educate them about the country's In an effort to repair relations with Wash- petites for rea l estate and luxury goods. economic problems, they are thrown out ington, General Torrelio made at least one There are no other investments they want of office. And of course there is the corrup- telling gesture. Last October, Alfredo Gu- tion problem. What makes it different from tierrez, who had skipped bail after getting other countries is that these guys steal caught in the DEA's sting against the more money than the government has." Suarez gang , was brought back to Miami Out of this economic and politi cal under Bolivian police escort. A few weeks swamp, an opportunity may eventually later, Marcelo Ibanez also was flown up to "In the beginning, we emerge for a rational, balanced, and ex- Florida. In March. Ibanez was sentenced pensive program that would bring the Bo- to twelve years' imprisonment after plead- thought the 'cocaine trade livian cocaine trade under control. ing guilty for his role in the sale of 854 wasn't such a terrible thing," According to American'CJiplomats, a rela- pounds of cocaine to the DEA undercover tively stable and honest government lead- agents. A decision on Gutierrez is expect- said a Bolivian businessman. ership would have to take power, con- ed in the coming weeks. "It was an important vinced that the drug traffic is bringing the In a stroke of luck, the Swiss police ar- source of capital . But in the end, country far more drawbacks than benefi ts . rested Roberto Suarez, Jr., in Locarno last Enough U.S. aid would then have to be of- December when he was caught using a it corrupted everything." fered to institute an effective crop-substi- false Colombian passport. Until now, the tution program in the newer coca-growing Bolivian government has indicated it regions like the Chapare. And drug-en- would not contest Washington's request forcement activities wou ld have to be to have him extradited to Miami. stepped up, although undercover spec- Neither DEA nor State Department offi- taculars like the sting against Suarez are cials believe that Torrelio himself is in- to make in Bolivia at this point. The bulk of not likely to be repeated. volved in the cocaine trade. But he their profits is being placed abroad, in There is no evidence yet that such a appears too weak to clamp down on the American and Swiss banks. scenario is unfolding . Roberto Suarez traffic. About the only financial game that inter- shows no signs of cutting back his huge "Even if you could find a dozen honest ests them in Boli via is the money market. smuggling operations. Some DEA agents generals and colonels , they would prob- With a foreign debt of almost $4 billion, entertain the slim hope that he might at ably be gunned down by their colleagues there are no dollars available in Bolivian some point want to give himself up if he and junior officers," says a diplomat sta- banks. Desperate businessmen are wi ll- could receive guarantees of protecti on , tioned in La Paz. "The drug traffic has ing to pay almost any price for coca-dol- maybe even a light sentence in Miami, in thoroughly corrupted the military. It has lars. In one week last March, the exchange for his encyclopedic knowl- destroyed the hierarchy in the officer black-market rate shot up from fifty pesos edge of the cocaine trade. corps, because rank doesn't count unless to over i 00 pesos a dollar, and hundreds The incentive might be the fear that he is you have drug connections. And even if of bankruptcies were sweeping industry too great a political liability for any govern- you could somehow put together an expe- and farming . The Chamber of Agriculture ment that wants to tidy up the country's ditionary force to march against the co- took out ads in a Santa Cruz newspaper tarnished image abroad. It is also not in- caine growers in the Chapare and Santa complaining that coca had become the conceivable that mi litary officials would Cruz, you would set off a peasant uprising , only profitable crop in the country. A accept Suarez's murder and replacement a real revolution. Those campesinos are group of 200 enraged mothers stormed by one of his ambitious lieutenants, a man making real money for the first time in their the Central Bank branch in Santa Cruz not so notorious overseas. lives." and held employees hostage until the gov- "Roberto Suarez is probably the best· . As if to underscore the validity of these ernment promised to give them dollars to known person in Bolivia," said a DEA remarks, earlier this year bombs partially send their children, stranded abroad as agent. "His name is more recognizable on destroyed the homes of two generals who university students. the streets of Santa Cruz than the current had spoken out strongly against the co- "In the beginning, all of us thought that president. But there are so many pre s- caine trade. The explosions were believed the cocaine trade wasn't such a terrible sures on him that he must be going nuts. to have been set off by junior officers. thing ," said Luis Dario Vazquez, secretary Think of all those people he has to pay off. The only source of optimism fo r the DEA general of the Pro-Santa Cruz Committee, all those accounts he has to juggle, all now is a po tentially significant backlash the biggest booster organization in the city, those little and big things that could go against the drug traffic in Bolivia itself. Un- embracing business, labor, and farmers. wrong and explode in his 170 PENTHOUSE .] OFFLCER SAFETY: COVER JOllS, COVER RESIDENCES, AND COUNTER-SURVElLLi\NCF.

111 smnt• d 1•pp urHll'rl'OVL•r opernt ions, for example, those involving long-term invp:;l of orgrlllizcd crime or terrorist groups, it mny .be impernLive l I . t o 1·rc•;t!t• <1 CIIVl'r story tlwt. employs not only a cover residence b11t also n 1 c"v"r joh. ttttd<·n·over op<•rnl inns require the dev.elopment of so close ,, rr•lat inttshit; hf'lwt·c•• the offic<•r a11d violator .. Generally, person<1l questi<"'ns nrc viewed with suspicion and disdnin, but questioning is sPmr·l inws r£'quir<•ll in developing the trust

Cnv1•r j<1ln: mny he e itlter real or imaginary. The undercover officer may ,,r·(q;tlly t.11

:;"'"I' i11risdict ion:; may select undc.•rcover operntors from :1mung pre-appointed I'"' in· I ist s :111d request th;tt tlwy maintain their current employment as a h:lrlt•nd"r or tru!'k driver even afl('r their appointment to the police agency. Th<· nll'dl;lll i t·s for this c:tn he \·Wrked out with or without the employer's klllllvl•·dgt•. 'J'h(l disadvilntages of an inexperienced undercover investigntor o1rl' nflt'll nvcrshadowetfby his ability to establish a deep cover little for IIC! doesn't :tlk, talk, or think like a cop. lie remains " lt:1rt c•lfdc•r or t ruek driver who <'au be molded into a productive undercover llJll'r:ll•ll' hy trninl'd invest igntors or formerly successful undercover offic('rs as hi:; h;mtllers or backup team.

l·!l1t·n• dc·••p pe1wLration requires a cover residence, more is involved tllan a it inc.1s nuccs. The undercover operator cnu rent the apnrt- l!lf'fll lrim:;c•lf, 111 il izing his cov<•r identity. Residences should be maint:tined pr••i'''' ly to giV<' :1 I ivC'd-in nppt•arnllt:C. Clothes should be milintni•·cd properly ' '' 1•.ivr· n I ivl•d-iu :lppc;Jrancc. Clolhes should be in the closet and dresser wlrich ::ll(l(lflrl. tit<• covt•r jub d to visit their residences frequently and maintain that I ivl'cl-in look. GrN•n moldy bread or rotten food in the refrigerator are teU- t:llt• IIJ;tl the officer is not living there; this could both the tllHil'rl·ov<•r offi!'l•r's :;aft'ty and the investigiltion. A phone with C:lll-[orwnrding t':lu IH· illsl:tllt•cl whil'l1 will ring :H the officer's true residence. Whenever an undt'r!'roV<'r opcr:Jt·or lenves 11 with a viol.1tor, n bar, or anywhere, he :;hmJid rl'lllrll either to his covPr job or cover residence. The officer should n'm:dn at the residence at least an hour, but if. practical, stay overnight to f111 r hc•r c•11hnnce the cover. ·On no occasion should the officer go from the real of I ir·t· or rC'al residence without first being sur·e that they are not being tailed.

Clllllllt·r-surveill:nwc is importnnt in any undercover operation but of critical l'Pnr·t•rn. in pentrntion. If the undercover officer hns heen questioned by tl11• violo1tor or feels any suspicion has be.en aroused regnrding the identity or role•, assume tlu..•f..t!! is surveillance on you. t/ 11 j 1 ,. t 1 r·q••r·ntly, 111Hit•rcover offin•rs, nre required Lo report to their 1 , .. , 1.. . ,·1 ivt• ht•adqu:•rll'r:-;, division, office or station, lo attend bricrinr,s nr 111 ,.,.1 1o t·r•mplt·lc reports, or to perform other duries. Tht•y ntso ;111 . 1 r•·qtll'llll y req•Ji n:d to return an undt• rc:over veil ic: le to the stornge 1;11·il ily af!l'l' making an undcrcnvl•r contAct. Quite possibly, tltey nrc rc- rf'tir•·rl \I!:C' nffil'ial vehicles for transportation toor from their rPsidence.

'lliv officer should bt• very cautious when ch.1nginr, from one vr·hir·l1· 111 another. \-/here nnd how the vehicle cxchnnr,t!s take place should lw :1 crHtsith•rat inn tluriug tlte planning phase of the undercover !Itt' undt·rcuvl'r officer should always be sensitive to this issue th• "'IJ',hnut t ht• Ofll'r:tt iun.

lr11n1 thP \'Oill't•ru when switching VE'hic:les, the undercover officer mu•;t nhsPrvt• !'aul ion when ridinr, in '"'fficial police vehicles, marked cr tllllu:nlu•d. A•1oid routl's or nn•as wher., the offir.er might be seen nnd identi- 1 i .. d hy tht• viuLttnrs or their associates. Any time the office>r or lt·:tvt•s a polin• fncility, be particularly alert to any possibility of being nbs•·rvl•d or t:ti led. The> cover is burned as soon as the viol.ntor nssociates 1 II!' u 11 til' r cove r tl f f ice r w i t h the L

F••r till• unuC'rnJV<'r officer returning to his or her Teal residence, it is impC'rnrive to sh.1ke any tail. If the officer is beiug surveilled, i:; n•l! :1\.J:lrP. nf it, and goes directly home, value as an undercover officer is prnh:ddy lost. If !he undercover officer told the violator they live dnwn- tol·lll a11d proct't•ds to an address in a western suburb, the cover is burned. 1\u! l'V£'11 if the officer- hasn't bt>en specific about an address and tile 'violator d officer's real identity, the investigation is still .ir·op:11·dizt•u lwcausc the officer has compromised his or her family's security. V11lnr·r;d1ility tn !hrt•ats Olg;Jin::l the family is generally n valid reason Lo sw:pl'nd an offic-er's per(ormanct' in an undercover role. th Penalty Sought for Killer of Undercover N.Y. Detectives

om Hays, The Associated Press

YORK, N.Y. (AP)- Federal authorities want a man accused in the execution-style killing of two undercover detectives to the death penalty under new charges announced on Monday.

alleged shooter, Ronell Wilson, 21, and four other defendants were named in a racketeering indictment. The men JIIIUeQecHv were members of a violent gang that dealt crack cocaine and illegal weapons out of a housing project on Staten Island.

gang, which was responsible for a string of robberies and drive-by shootings, "culminated its reign of terror with the of two courageous police officers," said U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf.

already had pleaded not guilty in state court to first-degree murder. He was ordered held without bail at an arraignment e new charges in Brooklyn federal court on Monday.

·ng a sting operation in March 2003, detectives James Nemorin, 36, and Rodney Andrews, 34, had met with Wilson to buy a submachine from the gang. It was alleged that Wilson decided to rob them instead and, once learning they were police shot both in the back of the head with a .44-caliber revolver.

began to weigh possible federal charges after the state Court of Appeals ruled in June that part of New York's death a1ty law was unconstitutional. If authorized by the U.S. Department of Justice, federal prosecutors could seek death for

e potential for a capital case "is the most important aspect of this indictment," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a "Anyone wh9 murders a police officer should forfeit his life."

owing the Wilson's arraignment, his attorney, Ephraim told reporters the case represents "death-penalty politics worst."

· dictment also charges Paris Bullock and Michael Whiten nnection with the case. But authorities said neither ant would be eligible for the death penalty; they instead a possible life sentence if convicted of conspiracy, drug- ng, robbery, gun running and other crimes.

ne has been executed in New York since the death penalty einstated in 1995, after a 25-year absence. The last in the state was in 1963.

and Andrews were the first officers killed in the line of since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. CELEBRAnNG 200 YEARS •' ... - ··:. .· METRO EDITION WEDNEsDAY, MARCH 12, 2003 I Partly sunny, 55 I Weat11er: 28 www.nypost.com

By WIWAM J. GORTA, lARRY CElONA and MURRAY WEISS This is the face of the man wanted by cops for the cold-blooded, execution- style slaying of two detectives on Staten Island. The NYPD has announced a manhunt for Ronell Wilson, 20, \Vho they say shot both cops in the head as an undercover gun buy went bad. The alleged kingpin behind the Stat- See MURDER Page 4 -::; .1 E PAGE · MY TIMES TODAY'S PAP ER VIDEO POPULAR TI MES TOPICS r.,,, ,;;. ·.!.<-·.> Free 14-Day Trial Welcome, michaellevine2 Member Center Log Out -·- - ---·--·-·----·· - .. ------··------·-.. -· . "" I Archives

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Officials Provide Details of How 2 Detectives Were Shot

E-MAIL Scottrade: e man accused of shooting and killing two undercover detectives in PRI NT

car on Staten Island on Monday night first ordered them to pull PERMISSIONS More than $7 Trades. It's Called Value & We er to the curb, then shot the one sitting in the front passenger seat Va lue You. SAVE pressing the gun against the driver's head and firing, officials Orbitz 'd yesterday. ;_;;:-:_f. ! (l (•_; Save now on business travel & save later on vacation at Orbitz! e account of the shooting, which took place during what the police ri!lilm ed a failed robbery, was provided to investigators by Jessie acobus, 17, who was sitting in the back seat next to the man accused of being the !"Jlllil.an, Ronell Wilson, 20, law enforcement officials said yesterday. The two men, the orities have said, had planned to rob the two undercover detectives, who met with em while posing as gun buyers to purchase a Tec-9 pistol .

. Wilson was arraigned yesterday on first-degree murder charges in Criminal Court on ten Island, hours after the police recovered a silver -44-caliber revolver with a den handle, which was believed to be the murder weapon. Acting on a tip, detectives tnmd the gun in a first-floor closet at 76 VanDuzer Street, around the corner from the

onds before the first shot was fired, Mr. Wilson said: "Give it up! Give it up!" rding to Mr. Jacobus's account, one senior law enforcement official said. The and, "is almost incomprehensible, because there appears to be almost no rtunity to give it up. It's just, 'Give it up, give it up,' and bam, bam .... almost ediately," the official said.

1l . Wilson, according to the account, first shot Detective Rodney J. Andrews, 34, who sitting in the front passenger seat of the car, a law enforcement official said. He en shot the other detective, James V. Nemorin, 36, who was driving, the official said .

. Wilson and Mr. Jacobus then got out of the car and began to walk away, then ed and pulled the two detectives out of the car, the police said. Mr. Wilson took ective Nemorin's gun, the police said, and the two men then stole the detectives' car headed to the apartment ofOmar Green, 19. Mr. Green had arranged the gun sale lived nearby at 67 Warren Street in Tompkinsville, the police said.

they got out of the car, they were spotted by two rookie patrol officers. The officers Mr. Jacobus, but Mr. Wilson got away, the police said. Mr. Wilson left his clothes and a gun at Mr. Green's apartment and fled to Brooklyn, officials said. police later found that gun inside a wall behind an electrical switchplate, officials Mr. Wilson was arrested on Wednesday morning in Brooklyn.

McKernan, a lawyer for Mr. Jacobus, declined to comment on the case last night.

e arraignment of Mr. Wilson on Staten Island yesterday, the courtroom was _..,.n,•n with his friends and family and with colleagues, friends and supporters of the dead detectives. Mr. Wilson could face the death penalty if convicted of the murder

Alan Meyer of Criminal Court ordered Mr. Wilson to be held in protective custody, mu:l denied a request from prosecutors that his phone conversations be monitored. Both prosecutors and a lawyer for Mr. Wilson had asked that he be held in protective custody, but for different reasons. Kelley Sharkey, a court-appointed lawyer for Mr. Wilson from the State Capital Defender Office, said it was necessary for his safety. But prosecutors feared that he might transmit threats to potential witnesses. That is also why they sought to have his phone calls monitored, said William L. Murphy, the Staten Island district attorney.

As the charges were read, Mr. Wilson stood wearing a white jumpsuit, rocking back and forth gently on his heels. His mother and father and other family members sat in the third row of the gallery, two rows behind two undercover detectives who had worked with the dead men.

Two women, Chikenya Collier of Brooklyn and Danae Pope of Staten Island, were arraigned yesterday on charges that they had hilldered prosecution by helping two of the men charged in the killings escape. Both women were released without bail.

Michael and Luciano Diaz, the brother and mother of Mitchell Diaz, one of the six men being held in connection with the killing, were arraigned on Wednesday on charges that they had helped Mr. Diaz to conceal two weapons. They were released yesterday, prosecutors said.

After the arraignment, several undercover detectives who had worked with the two victims stood outside the courthouse in a cold rain and recalled their lives.

"You have lunch with the guy every day, you have dinner with him," said one detective who worked with Detective Nemorin for three years and would not give his name. "Now all of a sudden he's gone, and for what?"

Patrick J. Lynch, the president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, said: ''You cannot take a police officer's life in this city. If you do, we will find you."

:Q.Qinioc w. ,£lll{l§ rravej Jill<.!! T.

BLOOD ON .THE SHIELD E 8 'd 0 ,..,c. c ...., 0 0 N Anatomy of a How·-NYPD!s n11$f ,IJ.erileU; -;;; 0 0..

0 > z job _cost s·lhlir liv .·[.. .. _. .. _, .:...... • ·/ . . . ·. .· ! ; By lARRY CELONA, :1.. ·seard1. : , ' ·MURRAY WEISS . - both .style ·- were found lying on the .road and ANDY GELLER · Hannah Place near the intersection wim The Tac Plan meeting began at 6:30 p.m. Pauls Avenue in the Tompkinsville secri Monday. . Investigators don't know if tJJ.e gun se Detective A had been working on the . knew their customers were cops - or sting for six months. · wanted to rob then1.. . . The previous week - posing as a gun · · ·.. Detective A appeared to have been buyer - he had purchased a 357 Magnum ·· . first He had been hit in the back of from an 18-year-old Staten Island gun . · head near the neck. dealer named Omar Green. · · ··. Detective B appeared to have Now. he was getting ready to buy a TEC- · when he heard the shot. He was hit in 9 semiautomatic pistol - a deadly weapon . cheek and ear area that has a magazine cDpacity of 10 to 50 . . Both ·men were pronounced dead z: rounds. . · V'mcent's Hospital on Staten Island. DeiU The teen gun dealer demanded $1,300. · · A still had the $1,200. · · The detective talked him dawn to $1,200. · · · Cops believe Wilson, who was stii! A. a 36-year·old father of three whose large last night, was the shooter. real name is being 'vithheld by The Post, ·· A witness told police that the same could probably have busted Green after shot . both ' oftlcers ari.d then both buying the Magnum, but that isn't the name ·.bolted from the car, leaving the detecq of the game. ' inside. No. the game is to buy more and more : The wimess said the perps ran zS tD guns to see where they come from, to see if feet, changed their minds and iin'.lj a& the car, tossed out the cops', bOdies a there's a Mr. Big involved. Both Detective .A and Detective B had drove off. ·. · . ., ·. If you don't fmd a Mr. Big, at least you've been on the force since 1996 and joined the taken guns off the street. .. _,,·, ·. The:car, splattered with blood,' waS fa fuearms unit sbc months ago after working Vanderbilt and Pine streets, .a A and his colleagues in the Firearms In- in narcotics. · vestigation Unit of the NYPD's Organized Firearms is one of the ·most dangerous as-. busted by' Crime Control Bureau met in their offices · . was · signments a cop can have because you're his shirt covered wjth at 305 Front St., a few blocks away from the not only working with known criminals but saicl- . . ·. . . . . ' ··.. \ ,.... !20th Precinct station house on Staten Is- known criminals who have guns. · "I stole the car,'' he explairie(l;'ji fo · land to plot their next move. "He wanted to get the guns off the and wh.en I got in, fi gOt.. - It was decided that Detective B, a street," said narcotics Detective Brian bloOd: on me." . :. · · ·. ·. :· . 34-year-old divorced father of two, would Grenz, a longtime friend of Detective B. . Jacobus later told cops tl:ie "pJ.ati· ride in the car with A and there would be "Wlwt he does is one of the most danger- walked away from. car and" continued· ·, rob the two·undercovers, not kill therii, four backup cars, each manned by two un- ous things that anyone could ever do, and dercovers. he was excellent at He was the best I've b·. ·..• ,. The backup cars would form a diamond ever the detectives' vehicle ...: : .. ·.i who-l!l!d pattern around A and B's leased Nissan In preparation for buying the TEC-9, De- avoid being sp0tted. _.· .: . :/ ,-: go-bclWeln:iri the first Ma.xima. One car would be in front, one tective A had called Omar Green and ar- Wilson got b ack in the detectiVe?:Car;and · rested·ovetnight:.:·:··· ?······";· \ . would be in back and two would be on ei- ranged to meet him at 67 Hill St., one of the it drove off, making a$eries of qu4:Js)ums·'· . .: __Green :·wa5-51qested ·:in drag" ther side. buildings of the Stapleton housing project - which prevented· the backup cars;from.,>.a.m:; ·. yesterday'C{.on·:' a· ·Mailhattait-ooa B would pretend to A's brother-in-law. When he and Detective B arrived at the keeping pace. . . ·.- ·, ;::':_ :. '' ,:: Stafen,:IsJ,and,i:.ferry:·after··. a· ·woman :.or Both detectives-would be wired with Kell building about 8 p.m., there were two men It als::> <;ntered a hilly" area, preached cops_'and·silid, microphone-transmitters. in the lobby, Ronell Wilson, 20, and Jessie transrruss1ons from the Kell deVIces; ·. · .·· · here · who's . e1ther . a. guy !Jr. the·•ug!:.e The plan seemed foolproof. but in a scant Jacobus, 16, cops said. Thinef. were looking bad.. A- woman I've ever.seen." :: · · . .: 90 minutes, it would go horribly wrong. ''Who's the other guy?" one of the men

. . . :.. , ' .. Dragnet out tO .snare ; . MURDER from Page 1 Sena, who witnessed the in an earlier gun buy be- have helped dispose of · detectives.i ix;th seven,- . news of his death - z:: en Island slaughter was exchanges. tween Green and one of the dence. · year veterans -were with- : leaves behind three caught yesterday morning "If it wasn't for her he undercovers; Jessie Jacobus, Police believe robbery ·. · hell,i by police for fear of drere two boys, 7 and 5, z:: - weari..'1g woman's would've gotten away. • . 16, believed to be the other was the motive. the detec- . jeapardizirig: ·other under- a girl; 20 monU1S. · ing -on a Manhattan- TI1e eagle-eyed woman, man in the back ·seat when lives agreed to pay $1.200 . _cover The other detective, : bound feny. who is eligible for thou- Wilson openecl fire, and an for the gun. The criminals One ·was : a 36-year-old father of two Omar Green, 18, was col- sands of dollars in rewards, unnamed man who had a fled with one ·of the offi- · ·· · H3iti3n :·. iio:migraot, who years old, : "\'I

1\.1 Shortly afterWard, the detectives' car is found dumped at V::!nrlo<>rhilt A\/P.nttP. -'lnrl . •" .. il·-. .

;· · . togetlie:r 1ed.: 'Ma11ctay iiba .· · hjmt . .. eli-Wilson; and atlea:st one othe'r-irian ·. · ilci4&: beue\fe' •...._ ,,_._,,._c·!·.. ·: inforriuition abOut the everits. ,.mg ·/:r.::: ,.. . . -·. ·But officials :·win soon ·begin: iin eXhaustive-re.View·of thEi WidercoveJ:,_ _ a: to _t,i I i .learn from whatever rDlStakes 'may I from _· .. " : ,_ ,,. . , ,( ·. Iri.vestiga- , · operations like the one ·I · -: ori · night are · ·carefUlly" ; nf.inm·.,_;;t\tn·thP _of: - a_s P9Ssible,, \ whaf the' tw'o de:- -·:·. both to. prevent things from goirig : colleagues were . wrong and to exert control over fluid I · .. -. -- . situations. . · : ,; . . . .:.. .•.. ' . "!... . !'- .-.. ., ..

------Slain NYC Detectives Were on Risky Detail

By The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP)- It's one of the riskiest jobs in law enforcement: taking illegal guns off the streets by trapping anned suspects in illicit deals.

For three years, the New York Police Department's Firearms Investigation Unit has hauled in increasing numbers of guns and suspects with operations that delicately balance stealth and safety.

On Monday night, backup teams lost two undercover detectives trying to buy a $1,200 submachine gun, police said. Minutes later, the two men were dumped on a Staten Island street with fatal gunshot wounds.

Four suspects were in custody Wednesday, including -old Omar Green, who gave himself up on a Staten Island ferry Tuesday after a passenger alerted two patrol officers to a man disguised in a blond-streaked wig and stuffed bra.

Ronell Wilson, also 19, was arrested Wednesday. Also arrested were Michael Whitten, 19, and Jessie Jacobus, 17. Police said at least one other man was wanted for questioning.

In Monday's undercover operation, four police backup cars dropped out of sight when one of two suspects riding in the detectives' car got out to make a phone call, police said.

The backups could not catch up again, and a miniature transceiver on one of the detectives' bodies cut out in the hilly neighborhood, police said.

"It's a challenge, no question about it, to have something small enough to avoid detection but large enough to transmit a sufficient distance," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

The police detectives' union said it had long complained of problems with the transceivers, known as "kels," although it was unclear whether a technical problem contributed to the deaths.

"Most of the time they work fine, other times they're deficient," Detectives' Endowment Association president Tom Scotto said. "Whether the outcome would have been the same is difficult to say."

The seven-year Police Department veterans were found minutes after the undercover operation began. Each had been shot once in the head and neither appeared to have fired a shot.

Investigators said they believe the officers were shot in an attempt to rob them of the $1 ,200 gun payment

The two slain detectives were among 13 undercover officers in the city's firearms investigation unit, which seized 484 guns and arrested 89 people last year, up from 260 guns and 68 arrests in 2001, according to department records.

After initially withholding their names to protect open investigations, police identified the slain officers Wednesday as Rodney Andrews, 34, and James Nemorin, 36. ·

Nemorin, a police veteran, was married with three children, ages 7, 5 and 1. Andrews, a seven-year veteran, had two sons, ages 11 and 12.

There was a $54,000 reward for information leading to convictions in the case, police said. 2 sentenced for roles in shooting deaths of N.Y. detectives

The Associated Press

NEW YORK- Two members of a drug gang have been sentenced to prison for their roles in the shooting deaths of two police detectives posing as gun traffickers.

Paris Bullock and Michael Whitten received prison terms of 25 years and 27 years, respectively, at their sentencing on Wednesday.

Detectives James Nemorin, 36, and Rodney Andrews, 34, were sh ot in the head and dumped on a Staten Island street in March 2003 after their sting operation aimed at buying a Tec-9 su bmachine gun went awry.

Bullock, 24, and Whitten, 22, had pleaded guilty in December to arges linked to the shooting deaths.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the alleged s ooter in the case, 24-year-old Ronell Wilson, who is scheduled to go on trial next month. He has pleaded not guilty state court to first-degree murder. HUNTO

I·' on'street, ·devoted,dads at,home

sor in Brooldyn South Nnrcot· ics, Lt. James Russell, remem- bercq him us a superb undercov- In the dangerous world of undercover cops, the er operative who could switch two detectives slain by a gang of young gunrunners roles us: smoothly as the most ac- were considered among the best at their job: complished Hollywood actor. Both detectives ha.d cemented who worked alongside them are "Depending on where he was, their reputations as hardscrob- not jeopardized. PortTnits of he went from police officer, to Dnddy, to undercover again - ble street cops by working stints both officers were pieced togeth- someone none of us would actu- in Brooklyn narcotics squads. er by talking to their friends and ally recognize," RusscU said. "Be· Both men were well·regarded in co-workers. fore he went onto the streets, he the f'ireunns Investigation Unit, One hulking detective stood would switch into character. If even though they hod orily 6-foot-3 and wns nicknamed the his kids called, he would switch worked in the elite · squad for Haitian Sensation beenuse of off that character and become about four the flashy ensembles he favored Daddy again. He would say in But even as remem- in a squad where worn jeans this voice, 'I'm gOing out to bered the fallen officers for their and white sneakers nrc the catch bad guys agaiil:' · willingness to embrace danger, nann. . "He was definitel)lthe best un- thf; men who died side by side The 36-year-old cop immigrot- dercover who worked under me also were recalled for their abili- ed to the U.S. 15 years ago, nod -no doubt about it/' ty to shift fTom their roles as un- earned n bachelor's degree from dercover thugs to dedicated John Jay College. He joined the One tall, the other wide dads. force in 1996, a year after he The Haitian Sensation may 'This is a very dangerous busi· mnnied and began his fomily. have been tall, but his partner, ness, a.nd this is n particularly . He Jeaves behind three chil- known as Jay, was wide. Both de- dangerous pnrt of the business dren- two sons, 7 and 5, nod a tectlves had served in the. .NYPD -dealing with illegal firellrnls," 20·month·old daughter. for 71h years, and workblg to· Police Commissioner Raymond A soccer nficionndo, the Hoi- gether had made them friends, Kelly said yesterday. 'A lot of tian Sensation, played on the fellow cops said. times, they [suspects] are young Patrolmen's Benevolent Associa- Jay, a 5-foot-ll gym rnt, spent people, they are prone to vio- lion's team, suffering good-na- a great deal of time building up lence. So it is very. very danger· lured ribbings from fellow cops ' his muscled 265-pound frame. ous and very risky. These offic· who kept telling him the sport recalled his friend Detective ers did a phenomenal job. They was not called football ._,.· at Brian Genz, who is assigned to had outstanding reputations." least not In the U.S . . Brooklyn North Narcotics. MIKEAUIANS IWlY N£WS The names of the fallen offic- If he wns all smiles in the When he wasn't lifting weights, crs nre being withheld by the squad, on the streets theiunder- Jay, 34, was boasting about his • BlilJ PNew York City medical examin· tion at this time that that's the case. .officiai, the two men In the back seat tunately paid a terrible price to pro- "He's this really big, really mus.cu- .police had ransacked their apart· er's office, said both detectives were We have reason to believe that this started to leave the car after the tect the rest of us," Mr. Bloomberg Jar guy. And if you saw him, the fi.i'st ment in what they said was retalia- shot in the back of the head. The was intended to be a robbery." Asked shootings, then returned, dragged said of the two officers at the news thing you would be like, 'Oh l'llY tion for the detectives' deaths. bodies of the detectives, both fathers why the money might have been left the detectives' bodies out and drove conference earlier in the day. "And God,' " he said. "His biggest mus_cle · · "We are sorry for everything that and seven-year veterans of the force, behind, he said, "Well, panic." Police away. Police later found the car, our hearts go out to their families." was his heart." finger pal as shooter on S.l.

By MICHELE McPHEE, AUCE McQUillAN and DAVE GOLDINER men showed u'P instead of just sell a mol'e expensive gun for lots "I just want this over with," he DAllY NEWS STAFF the seller. of cash - and rob then1 of the told his grandmother from his The tape tra.nsmission cut off money." jail cell. Cops mounted a massive manhunt last night for a just as backup officers monitor- The source sai.d investigators Investigators said Green had Staten Island man suspected of being the cold-blood- ing the conversation lost sight of are not sure whether the gunmen sold a handgun to one of the un- ed gunman who executed two undercover officers, the car in the ty.risting streets. knew the pair were cops. dercover officers Jast week. Seconds later, the cops were "No one is coming forward to On Monday night, the cop sur- police sources said. shot dead. The men dumped the why, .. a source said of the prised the teenage ex-con by Ronell Wilson, 20, was fin. bled as the men drove through bodies and fled in the cops' shootings. showing up with a partner in his gered by three pols as the trigger- the Tompkinsville section. blood-soaked car. The News is not printing the black Nissan Maxima outside the man who pumped single buUets The suspects found the cop's slain cops' names at the request Stapleton H?uses. into the 'detectives' heads after a transmission device, but investi- 54G bounty Alleged mttstermind Omar of the Police Department - He explamed to Green. who gun buy-and-bust deal went bod, gators do not know whether the which fears that revealing their was cell phone from a the sources said. Green, 19, arrested yester- discovery prompted the shoot- day after his pills Jesse Jacobus, identities could jeopardize other nearby bu1ldmg:, that he was The manhunt unfolded as a if ings or the attackers found the 17, and Whitten. Prose- undercover cases. co mfortublc coming alone after chilling audiotape revealed the wire after the murders. . cutor'S said Gteen and Jacobus Green, who is 6·foot ·3 and Green's friends sold him the fi rst finaJ mQments of the two hero One of the cops - the flTSt could face lh• death penalty. weighs 200 pounds, was nabbed gun. cops police believe were NYPD officers slain in the line of Whillen is charged only wilh sell· yesterday morning as he tried to ?rdered two other men lured into a trap to rip them off in duly since Sept. II, 2001 - had ing an illegal g>Jn. escape on a Manhattan-bound - tdentrfted as _WJ.lson and Jaco- a robbery. angered the suspected master- Cops put a bounty on ferry disguised as a woman in a bus - to get mto the car, nnd ''We want to search you," one mind of the crime by bringing a Wilson's head. blond-streaked wig and a bra they_ drove to a nearby apartment of the .Ullers said in an ominous second man, according to the Police sources told .The News stuffed with socks. to .PICk up the the Tec-9 sub rna- transmission picked up by a tape. they br:li eve the gunmen intend- He was busted when a woman chme gun the cops were sup- cop's wire, the Daily News hus "1 feel more comfo11ablc com- ed all along to rob the undercov- on the ferry told cops thut she posed to be buy.ng learned. ing with my brother-in-law/' said e r cops- not :iCU them guns. ·· -· suspected·treet. He wanted to make a "What he does is one of the most dangerous things anyone the Stapleton Houses collared Ja· afar. But when he talked about The elite unit has made difference. took it seriously," cobus as he ran from the car: "' his two boys, he would just light sands of arrests that officials Genz said. "The way he worked, could do and he was excellent at Wilson escaped and apparent· g. up," Genz said. credit with helping drive down he had a vig(,r for it. He was a it," Genz said. ''Was hCaware of ly mel up with Green, bccuusc Gem: snid Jny was uc:;tnt lc: thu dty 's nnll-tl i) l' fAitl iO rour-d• l• I' I"IOrhpluH. flt; rt11Hic yuu wunt tn thn riNkR? Vl'ls. h" NC/ IHifi? J rnpli rfllll!fllllll Rl11l 11 rfl p'.W 1 nl wul )t,! ulutt Ji J\-11111 liUht luWii l \1111 h1 lhe fl f'P. I Ii li-'ll{ ••f '•• Li-lj l .1i ;, •• !···- f!h,ff•,;" 1;,,,, +·•I ...... • d iL it · ·If, 1 !•,H, t • ..• -->1 .• ,. 1 "hen Double Murders Don't Matter http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles!Printable.asp?ID=7537

When Double Murders Don't Matter By John Perazzo FrontPageMagazine.com I April 28, 2003

When will it end? New York is the city, you probably recall, where a black man named Abner Loiuma was tortured by a white policeman in the restroom of a precinct station in 1997, making national news headlines for months; where the African immigrant Amadou Diallo was gunned down by four white police officers in 1999, creating a similar firestorm in the media; and where civil rights activists like the Reverends AI Sharpton, Calvin Butts, Herbert Daughtry, and Jesse Jackson have spent many field days publicly alleging that racism and a predisposition to brutalize black men runs rampant in the NYPD. As recently as January 2003, Sharpton and New York City Councilman Charles Barron were among the many who called for a special investigation into why city police officers had felt it necessary to shoot three black suspects during the first few days of the new year.

Against this backdrop, the last thing New York needed was yet another potentially high-profile altercation between cops and black city residents, ending with two African American men lying dead- in pools of their own blood. But that's precisely what occurred on the night of March 10 in Staten Island, when two men known in their community to be of excellent character - 34-year-old Rodney Andrews, who leaves behind two young sons, and 36-year-old James Nemorin, who is mourned by his wife and three children - both died of gunshot wounds to the head.

If you live outside of New York, you may perhaps be wondering why you haven't heard much about the deaths of these men. Even though both victims were black, and both were killed in an altercation between cops and civilians, the civil rights watchdogs were silent. There were no public rallies denouncing the killings; there were no pained lamentations about anti-black violence permeating the city and its police force; there were no desperate calls for greater respect for black lives. Why not?

It's actually quite simple. First, the triggerman who killed both Andrews and Nemorin was also black. And second, Andrews and Nemorin were the police officers involved in the incident, not the civilians. In the contemporary civil rights game that assigns varying degrees of significance to the deaths of human beings, that makes the victims oh-for-two.

Detectives Andrews and Nemorin were killed in a sting operation that turned disastrous. Their plan was to purchase a $1,200 subrnachine gun from 20-year-old Ronell Wilson and 16-year-old Jessie Jacobus, at which point they were to arrest the pair for illegally selling a fireann. The youngsters, meanwhile, had other ideas: they would simply steal the $1,200 at gunpoint and call it a day. As Andrews and Nemorin drove the young men toward the location where the aforementioned weapon was stashed, they were trailed by backup undercover vehicles. Unfortunately, at some point Wilson spotted the backup cars and asked, "Are we being followed?" Because Andrews and Nemorin were wired for sound, the backup officers heard Wilson's question and thus veered off the road so as to give the appearance that no one was following the lead vehicle. Nevertheless, when the lead car reached a relatively isolated area shortly thereafter, the suspicious Wilson shot both detectives in the back of the head, execution style. He and Jacobus then pulled the dead officers out of the car and drove off.

4122/07 8:36AM When Double Murders Don't Matter http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=75:

A member of the infamous Blood gang, Wilson is a remorseless monster who spent the days immediately following his double murder cavorting with a girlfriend. At his arraignment a few days after the crime, he "didn't seem fazed by it in the slightest," according to a detective in attendance. Jacobus and four other accomplices- including one Omar Green, who orchestrated the $1,200 robbery plot- are no better. They place utterly no value on human life. For them, murdering a man is no more morally taxing than swatting a fly.

Their wasted lives are a tragic testament to the devastating effects of fatherlessness in the black community today. According to various bits of background information in newspaper accounts, neither Wilson nor Green has a father who plays any meaningful role in his life. Nor does sixteen-year-old Mitchell Diaz, who supplied Wilson with the murder weapon. Whether any of the other three conspirators have any significant contact with their fathers is anybody's guess, but it's very unlikely that they do. In some American cities, 80 percent or more of children raised in black households have no father. What chance do such boys really have in life, growing up without the barest shred of the love and guidance they desperately need from a man whom they can respect and emulate? It is hardly surprising that they often turn, as Ronell Wilson did, to gang life not only for a sense of family, but for instruction in the difficult art of growing into manhood.

It is difficult not to feel pity for the overburdened women in their lives, who were unable to keep their boys from going astray. Consider the words ofOmar Green's grandmother Deborah Jackson, who rationalized, "Even if he [Green] was the mastermind, he wasn't in the car with them [the killers]." Green's mother, for her part, depicted her son as a basically normal boy who has a girlfriend and likes video games. Perhaps we can understand the reluctance of these women to acknowledge just how depraved is the youngster about whom they speak, for they are surely feeling maternal grief of the deepest kind.

But there is one group of folks for whom we ought not similarly cut any slack. These are the so-called "civil rights" activists of our day. Instead of talking about the vital issue of fatherless black homes, and instead of using such horrific incidents as these Staten Island killings as opportunities to encourage greater paternal involvement in the lives of young black men, these usually vocal racial hucksters suddenly become mute. They much prefer to save their breath for the next occasion when they can trace the death of an African American to the hand of a white police officer, at which time they will shout from the rooftops about police racism and brutality - as though that were the greatest source of hardship in the lives of young black men.

2of2 4/22/07 8::= Criminal ...

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Los Angeles Times

March 30, 2007 Friday Home Edition

SECTION: MAIN NEWS; National Desk; Part A; Pg. 26

LENGTH: 327 words

HEADUNE: Officers' killer g et s d eath sentence; Ronell W i lson sh ot two New York undercover d etectives in 2003.

BYUNE: From Newsday

DATEUNE: NEW YORK

BODY:

A man convicted of killing two undercover detectives in 2003 during a gun deal was sentenced to death Thursday.

"It Is the judgment of this court that the defendant, Ron ell Wilson, is sentenced to death," U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis told a packed gallery in the federal courthouse in downtown Brooklyn. "Ronell Wilson has been proven guilty not only beyond a reasonable doubt, but beyond all doubt."

If he dies by lethal Injection, Wilson, 24, would be the first federal inmate sentenced in New York to be executed since the 1950s.

Before Garaufis condemned him, a somber Wilson stood between his attorneys and addressed the court with a short statement.

"I would like to say to the families of the victims that I am sorry -- .truly sorry -- for the pain I have caused," Wilson sa id.

He also thanked Garaufis for courtesies the judge had extended him, including allowing a visit with his mother In the courthouse earlier Thursday. Looking toward his prosecutors, Wilson again Insisted that he did not know his victims -- James Nemorln, 36, and Rodney Andrews, 34, -- were undercover detectives when he shot them.

"None of us knew they were cops, period," Wilson said while referring to his co-defendants who received prison terms for their roles In the slaylngs.

The sentencing was held In a large ceremonial courtroom to accommodate the hundreds of New York City detectives and pollee officers on hand.

Derek Williams, Andrews' cousin, spoke during the sentencing on behalf of the families.

"I am very proud of the men and women of the New York City Pollee Department and proud of detectives Andrews and Nemorin," Williams said.

Referring to his cousin, he added : "As I sit down at my desk doing my job, every so often I think about what the last few minutes and hours of his life were !Ike. It Is hard not to break down and cry. He was a good man doing a good j ob."

No execution date was set, and years of appeals of the death sentence were expected, officials said.

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Posted: Wednesday, 29 November 2006 7:41AM

Gang Member Says Executed Cop Begged for His Life

NEW YORK (AP) - An undercover police officer was begging for his life seconds before he was executed with a bullet to the head in Staten Island. The jury in Brooklyn Federal Court yesterday heard the testimony from a 300-pound gang-member who was testifying against his fellow gang member.

Ronell Wilson is on trial for killing two undercover police officers who were trying to make a gun buy.

The buy went bad when Wilson allegedly tried to rob the undercover cops of their money. He is accused of shooting Detectives James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews on March 10th, 2003 in Staten Island.

Yesterday, Jesse Jacobus testified that he was brought along by Wilson to offer "muscle" for the gun sale, butt he didn't know Wilson planned to rob the undercover cops and shoot them.

Jacobus testifieed that Detective Nemorin watched as his partner was shot, and then he pleaded for his life as Wilson pointed a gun at him and demanded the money for the gun purchase.

Jacobus says Wilson then shot Nemorin in the head.

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cil 4122/()7 8:47AM NY cops• •friendly fire• sparked barrage that killed groom

By Murray Weiss; Additional reporting by Stephanie Gaskell New York Post

A doomed young groom was caught in the crossfire of an undercover cop, whose bullets went clear through his car, and confused officers who returned their own blistering barrage, sources told The Post last night.

The blaze of gunfire lasted just 10 seconds outside the seedy Kalua Cabaret strip club in South Jamaica early Saturday. But it ended the life of 23-year-old, unarmed Queens dad Sean Bell, who was set to marry his high-school sweetheart and the mother of his two young daughters hours after his bachelor party at the club.

Dramatic new details of the deadly mayhem include the undercover cop at one point climbing onto the hood of Bell's car -his gun drawn and his police shield around his neck- screaming, "Police! Tum off your car! Let me see your hands!" said sources who talked to some of the cops involved in the shooting . .

When Bell then tried to run down the plainclothes officer -twice -the cop began shooting, with some of his 11 bullets piercing the rear window of the man's Nissan Altima, the sources said.

This left the cop's backup unit- which was just arriving on the scene amid shattering glass and the undercover's shouts of "He's got a gun!"- thinking they were being fired upon from inside the vehicle. That's when they returned fire with another 39 bullets. One 12-year veteran, a narcotics detective, pumped 31 bullets, authorities said.

The sources recounted step-by-step how quickly things spiraled out of control after a dispute inside the club involving one of 8 's associates.

According to the sources, two undercovers were at the strip joint as part of the NYPD's new Club Enforcement Initiative. The program was started after the July slaying of 18-year-old Jennifer Moore of New Jersey , who partied at a Chelsea club before being abducted, raped and killed in a Weehawken hotel. The undercovers, who usually worked in Manhattan, were on the last night of their two-month Queens job to try to nail the Kalua and other clubs on such violations as drugs and underage prostitution. ·

Inside the club, one of the plainclothes cops sat next to a woman he thought was a hooker and might proposition him, the sources said.

Suddenly, a burly man approached them and told the woman that he had heard she had gotten into a fight with a group of guys earlier in the club. It was unclear what it was over.

The man said, " 'Don't worry, baby, I got yoi,J covered,' and he takes her hand, and he rubs it across [the gun in] his waistband, a source said. "Then he tells her, 'That's what I'm here for.' "

It's unclear how the man smuggled his weapon past the metal detector outside the club. He likely was a regular who knew the bouncer at the door and may have worked there part time, hE;;Iping with security, the sources said.

The undercover then went outside the club and radioed his to tell them there was a man inside with a gun. It was arou 3:30a.m.

While the undercover was outside, the suspect came out along with the girl and others, since it was around closing time.

The undercover watched as an argument erupted between Bell 's group, which included three male pals and the beefy man wi foe gun, and four other men -with the woman in the middle of them, the sources said.

e woman was overheard saying to the men arguing with Bell 's pals, "I'm not doing you all. I'll do one or two, but not all," according to the sources.

•ound the same time, the undercover said he heard Bell's friend Joseph Guzman tell his buddies, ''Yo, get my gun! Get my gun! Le 's get my gun from the car! Yeah, we're gonna f--- him up!" the sources said.

e undercover, thinking there was about to be a drive-by shooting in front of the club involving Bell's group, followed Guzman, 3eU and two others to their car.

"" s getting hot! Something's going to happen! Something's going down!" the undercover radioed to his backup.

He hurried to the front of Bell 's Altima, which was parked on the side of nearby Liverpool Street , and jumped in front of it.

- at's when the undercover put his right leg up on the hood of the Altima and began screaming that he was a cop, the sources said.

e cop was leaning over the hood of the car to try to see the hands of the people inside and make sure they didn't have any ns, they said. But Bell floored the gas pedal and headed for the cop, the sources said, striking him and badly cutting his knee.

e of the Altima's passengers -who possibly had a gun -jumped out of the back of the car, the sources said.

und the same time, an unmarked Toyota Camry driven by a plainclothes police lieutenant and another cop behind him pulled , but overshot Bell 's car. A police van with an officer and the narcotics detective then managed to block Bell 's car in.

3ell 's Altima first struck the police van in the driver's desperate bid to escape, then backed up and struck the roll-down metal ::oors of a commercial building behind him. He then rewed his car again toward the undercover - which prompted the cop to scream, "He's got a gun!" and start firing, according to the sources, with the bullets through Bell's car.

' he undercover thought they had more than one gun. He thought they would do anything to get away. He was yelling, 'Let me see your hands!' " one source said.

e other cops, thinking they were under attack, started firing at the car, too.

one point, the detective thought his gun had jammed and so reloaded his magazine and· emptied the clip again at the car, ff ·ng 31 bullets.

3ell was killed, Guzman critically injured, and a third friend, Trent Benefield, was shot. They are expected to live.

3enefield later told a friend from his hospital bed that he and his buddies didn't know the undercovers were cops.

told investigators, ''I got into the car, and there was all this shooting."

· wa$ unclear when the other four men who were originally fighting with Bell and his pals fled the scene. They were spotted eaving in a black SUV.

3ell had been arrested three times in the past: twice for drugs and one on a gun rap in a case that was sealed. Guzman has ::;,een busted nine times, including for armed robbery. He spent two stretches in state prison in the '90s. Benefield has a sealed -ecord as a juvenile for gun possession and robbery.

Some marijuana was later found near the Altima. and investigators believe that it may have been tossed out by the group before . ;e gunfire. Two bullet casings also were recovered from the Altima, although cop$ said they do not believe they were from a :x>lice gun.

e shooting of Bell , who was black, has ignited racial tensions in the city- even though the cops involved included two blacks, a Hispanic and two whites.

e five cops who fired shots were put on administrative duty. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said it was the first time that any the officers were involved in a shooting.

tectives Endowment Association President Michael Palladino said the cops were justified in firing off a total of 50 bullets at armed men because Bell was using his car as a lethal weapon.

·"once the threat ended, so did the shooting."

source told The Post: "They [the cops] feel completely sad about what happened. They made a decision, and they're going to li e with it." Training of cops in NYC shooting faulted

The Associated Press

NEW YORK- Four of the five officers who together fired 50 gunshots at the car of an unarmed man on his wedding day hadn't completed mandatory firearms training, a group of black officers alleged Thursday.

New York Police Department brass "failed to ensure these officers were properly trained," said Marq1..1ez Claxton, a founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care.

At a news conference outside police headquarters, Claxton alleged that four plainclothes officers involved in the Nov. 25 killing of 23-year-old Sean Bell and the wounding of two companions attended only one of two annual "training cycles" at the police shooting range. The fifth shooter, an unidentified undercover detective, had done both practice sessions, he added.

"When you fail to attend these training cycles, tragedies Claxton said.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the officers' track record on training was unremarkable.

"Ideally, everyone goes to two cycles, but it's not unusual for officers not to complete both cycles in one year," he said.

The fraternal organization - made up of current and retired law enforcement officers from the NYPD and other agencies - claimed that a preliminary police department report about the shooting contains proof the officers were undertrained.

The victims in the shooting were black; the officers were white, black and Hispanic.

The report lists the last time each officer was at the shooting range: One who fired 31 of the 50 rounds was there April 5; another on March 3: another on Jan. 12; and another on March 21. The undercover detective last took practice on Oct. 4, it says.

The report also notes that none of the officers had ever fired their weapons in the field before the confrontation outside a Queens topless bar where Bell's bachelor party intersected with a police undercover operation targeting suspected prostitution.

Police have said undercover officers believed the victims were going to retrieve a gun, but no weapons were found. The undercover officer, who initiated the gunfire, has said through his lawyer that he saw a fourth, possibly armed man flee the car.

Civilian witnesses supported that claim and identified the fourth person as Jean Nelson, police said. Nelson and the two survivors from the car, Trent Benefeld and Joseph Guzman, have denied he was .in or near the car when the gunfire erupted.

The officers are on paid administrative leave while Queens prosecutor Richard Brown determines whether they will face criminal charges.

Associated Press writer Pat Milton contributed to this report. Police questioned after NY shootings

By TOM HAYS The Associated Press

'lEW YORK- Mayor Michael Bloomberg met Tuesday with the "amily of a man killed outside a strip club on his wedding day by a barrage of police gunfire, the second straight day Bloomberg as reached out to angry community members.

The 50-bullet police volley likened to a "firing squad" by the Rev. AI Sharpton killed 23-year-old Sean Bell after his bachelor party, wounded two of his friends and ignited concerns over ::JOi ice tactics and firepower. The three men were unarmed.

31oomberg went to the family's church in Queens and met with 3 ell's fiancee and father, and with Sharpton. The mayor then .et again with other community leaders.

On Monday, Bloomberg said the police response seemed • nacceptable" and "inexplicable," but he was steadfast in his s pport for Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who has been Jenounced by some critics since the shooting.

the victims, Bloomberg said Monday: "There is no evidence t:hat they were doing anything wrong," referring to what led up the moment their car struck an undercover officer outside the "'. htclub.

contrast to Bloomberg's outreach, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani was hounded for what some viewed as a slow response to the ling of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant who was shot 19 times in the entry to his apartment building by four rte officers. Those officers were acquitted of criminal charges.

eens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said Monday his office was investigating the Saturday morning shootings and the --=suits would be presented to a grand jury.

shooting stemmed from an undercover operation that began 1 a.m. Saturday at the strip club Kalua Cabaret, part of a ide crackdown sparked by the death of a teenager following a night of partying earlier this year at a Manhattan nightclub.

:J lice said they had received several complaints about prostitution and drug dealing at the cabaret and sent in two undercover ectives who left their guns behind because of searches at the door.

e detectives apparently spent the next few hours nursing drinks and mingling with the crowd.

cials said the officers weren't impaired. "We authorize them to have two drinks, and not more," Kelly said.

e of the officers alerted the backup team outside that a man inside was possibly armed. An undercover detective retrieved his pon and confronted Bell and his friends after they entered their car.

ly suggested that it was unorthodox for the officer to blow his cover rather than rely on other officers to make the arrest. ·

· n officials insist the detective took out his badge, identified himself and ordered the men to stop before the car, driven by . lurched forward and bumped him. The vehicle then smashed into an unmarked police van, backed up and smashed the van in before the shooting began.

e crashes along with the fear that one of the men had a gun seem to be what escalated the situation to the hail of gunfire by officers. It is not immediately clear if the men in the car knew they were dealing with a police officer. Friends and family speculated Bell got spooked by the officer's gun pointed at his car.

The NYPD discourages officers from firing on a moving vehicle. But Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives Endowment Association, argued that the officers had a right to fire if the car posed a lethal threat.

"The driver of that vehicle his actions were a contributing factor," Palladino said. "The amount of shots fired does not spell out excessive to me."

None of the five officers had fired a 16-shot semiautomatic pistol on patrol before that morning, officials said. The undercover officer shot first, firing 11 rounds; another, a 12-year-veteran, fired 31 times, meaning he reloaded.

Officials said all the officers would have been trained to avoid "contagious or sympathetic fire" when police become disoriented by the sound of friendly fire and blast away at a phantom threat.

"We stress when officers go to the range that they fire no more than three rounds and then assess what the situation is," Kelly said,

Contagious fire would not be a valid excuse, Sharpton said.

"To say that one gun causes an atmosphere where you keep shooting is to tell me that if one policeman makes a mistake, you could be subjected ... to what amounts to a firing squad," he said.

Joseph Guzman, 31, was shot at least 11 times, and Trent Benefield, 23, was hit three times. Guzman was in critical condition, and Benefield in stable condition Tuesday.

Associated Press writers Sara Kugler, Pat Milton and Adam Goldman contributed to this report.

police on guard after death threats

The undercover police offiQer who fired the opening salvo in a 50-shot barrage that felled a Queens man on his day told his story Tuesday for the first time.

etective insisted he identified himself as a cop long before ft:ed on the car carrying Sean Bell and his buddies.

'This cop screamed, 'Police!' and he had his shield out," attorney Philip Karasyk told the New York Daily News.

The News is withholding the name of the Brooklyn-born etective to not compromise his safety or the undercover operations he has worked on.

The detective held his fire despite Bell clipping him with his Nissan Altima, said Karasyk, who refused to name his client, even as police sources confirmed his identity. "Once the car hit im he jumped to the side," Karasyk said.

But when the cop saw the man sitting in the passenger seat_ whom police sources identified as Joseph Guzman_ reach into is waistband, the officer fired the first of 11 rounds at the men.

Four other officers, believing they were being shot at, also opened up on the car, Karasyk said. When the gunfire was over, Bell was dead and Guzman and another man, Trent 3enefield, were badly wounded.

he other officers believed the shots were. coming from the vehicle," Karasyk said. "They only did so in this case because they ere in mortal fear for their lives."

ueens District Attorney Richard Brown has vowed to get to the bottom of the Saturday morning shooting that has outraged nlack New Yorkers_ and that Mayor Michael Bloomberg said looked like "excessive force."

arasyk, however, said the five cops involved in the shooting _ none of whom ever fired his gun on the job before _ had no ualms about telling their story before a Queens grand jury.

"That's our offer to the prosecutors_ to waive immunity," Karasyk said.

e lawyer's client is a Hispanic officer in his late 20s.

66-year-old relative told The News that the detective is a good cop.

'Only God knows what happened," he said. "Police never shoot for no reason. Maybe he's got a reason?"

e U.S. Justice Department is monitoring the unfolding investigation. but Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Roslyn Mauskopf emphasized is not independently collecting evidence or interviewing witnesses.

eanwhile, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said police were questioning a new witness. Sources said that witness was hina Flores, who had told The News that a fourth man nearly jumped in Bell's car before the shooting.

Police are still searching for that fourth man, who is believed to have left the Kalua Cabaret in Jamaica, Queens, with the victims _ and to have disappeared shortly before the shooting started. Police also believe that the mystery man may nave been armed. It ,..._.., : _ __ . .. . .

All five officers have been placed on paid leave and ordered to surrender their guns.

Life-long friends, Guzman and Benefield took Bell out for a bachelor bash at the club _unaware that cops investigating drugs and prostitution were staking out the joint.

Two undercover detectives _ Karasyk's client and a female officer_ were inside. NYPD guidelines permitted them to have two drinks; Kelly said it wasn't yet known whether Karasyk's client was drinking because he hasn't been questioned pending the grand jury probe.

When Bell and his pals left at 4 a.m., Karasyk's client followed. Kelly conceded on Monday that it was unusual for an officer to pursue suspects; normally, the undercover signals his colleagues to move in.

Karasyk said his client followed because he heard Guzman say outside the club that he was going to get a gun to settle a beef with another club patron.

Many in the African-American community believe there was a racial component to the shooting because Bell and Benefield are both black.

Detective Mike Oliver, who fired 31 shots, and Officer Mike Carey, who fired three times, are both white_ as is Lt. Gerard Napoli, the supervising officer who did not fire his weapon. The two other officers who fired the ·remaining shots are both black. Their names have not been revealed.

Investigators have a mountain of evidence to go through, including video from one or more surveillance cameras near the scene of the shooting, radio transmissions among cops and ballistic reports for the 50 shots fired.

There also are more than 50 people to interview, delaying the empaneling of the grand jury. If charges are brought, all the cops' names will come out_ and the NYPD's image will be tarnished.

(New York Daily News correspondents Oren Yaniv and Scott Shifrel contributed to this report.)

By Rocco Parascandola News day

wo detectives, including the undercover who fired the first bullet in the 50-shot barrage that killed Sean Bell, told their story yesterday to the Queens grand jury that will decide if any of the five officers involved in the sensational case should be indicted.

Det. Gescard lsnora's appearance, plus that of Det. Marc Cooper, sets the stage for the much anticipated testimony tomorrow of Det. Michael Oliver, who fired the most shots, 31, reloading his weapon in the process.

Sources involved in the investigation expect Oliver to testify, though he has -not confirmed he will appear. Two other officers estified on Monday.

The grand jury could begin deliberations as early as next week.

Bell, 23, was killed the morning of Nov. 25, his wedding day, after eaving the Kalua Cabaret, a Jamaica strip club. Bell was in his car with two friends, Trent Benefield, 23, and Joseph Guzman, 31, when Is nora fired.

nora's testimony lasted for more than three hours and was tense. He was asked pointed questions by both the prosecutor and the grand jurors, said his attorney, Phil Karasyk.

wouldn't say it was hostile but it was vigorous and intense," Karasyk said after Is nora testified. "It was emotional for him, and '"le did very well. He got his point across. He gave them a picture exactly what was going through his mind."

e shooting killed Bell and seriously wounded his friends. The _ dercover, lsnora, police have said, approached Bell's car after earing an argument in which Guzman vowed to get his gun. No ; n was ever found . .

Cooper, who fired four times, said nothing to reporters when he showed up. He testified for two hours, then left.

'He answered all the questions posed to him by the grand jury," said his lawyer, Paul Martin. "He is relieved that this part is :Jehind him. It's a tragic situation and that is something he does think about. Again, he's a professional. He acted in a "'fessional manner ... and he's ready to go back to work."

ora's testimony is considered crucial because he was the first one to fire. In theory, according to sources familiar with the ::ase, the actions of the other four officers become easier to justify once they explain that they fired after Is nora started shooting

w first of his 11 bullets.

ll's death sparked 50 days of protest outside the 103rd Precinct, which is near the shooting site, even though the officers olved were assigned to a nightclub task force based in Manhattan.

=--eelancer Matthew Nester contributed to this story.

pyright 2007 Newsday, Inc. Advertisement: J?;,;"'l

01/28/2007

Man Shot and Killed by Police In Narcotics Operation

By Ryan Duffy and Victor Blackwell First Coast News

JACKSONVILLE, FL -Jacksonville Narcotics officers shot and killed a man during an undercover operation on the Southside.

The shooting happened in the 2300 block of Westmont Street, just off Philips Highway Saturday night.

"An individual approached from between two houses brandishing a handgun. \he officers gave several commands to drop the gun, he did not, so they exchanged gunfire," says Chief Dwain Senterfitt.

Witnesses told First Coast News it appeared the man mistook the officers for drug dealers and was trying to scare them away.

"The man came out three times and said move out of my yard. So after the third time he came out with a 357 and started shooting at the individuals," said a witness who did not want to be identified.

Police say officers shot the man several times and there were bullets found in a tree the officers had used as cover.

The man died at Shands Jacksonville.

A man who says he is the victim's nephew tells First Coast News that the victim was weeks from turning 81 years old. He says uncle was a respected man in the neighborhood that everyone called, 'Pops.'

"He [got] his enjoyment from sitting under a tree and watching his collard greens and cabbages grow," said nephew Gary Evans.

''The only time anybody would hear anything out of my uncle is if they stopped in front of his house and tried to do whatever they wanted to do," Evans added.

Officers John Maynard and James Narcisse have been placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure in police shootings.

The narcotics officers had been working in the neighborhood in response to complaints by residents about the drug activity.

The undercover investigation netted five arrests before the shooting.

The deadly shooting is the second by JSO in a week.

Last weekend narcotics officers shot and killed 18-year-old Doug Woods at the Sable Palms Apartments on Emerson, which is blocks from the scene of the latest shooting.

Investigators said Woods tried to rob an undercover officer with a gun.

Witnesses claim Woods only had a cell phone in his hand.

------·------·------··------Planning to research, evaluate or purchase product for yourself or your department? Check out PoliceOne's Product Research Categories to help you make an informed purchase. http:llwww.policeone.com/productsl Iowa undercover officer injured in sting

NIGEL DUARA Des Moines Register

DES MOINES. Iowa -An undercover officer was injured in a drug sting that went awry Wednesday afternoon.

One suspect was taken into custody, but two others are still sought by police and are believed to be armed.

Joe Byrd, 35, was arrested on suspicion of robbery after the drug sting by state narcotics agents turned violent, said Detective Mike McTaggart of the Des Moines Police Department.

The agents entered a house at 1327 24th St. in Des Moines and attempted to sell drugs. During the exchange, one agent was struck in the face with a handgun and two suspects took an ndisclosed amount of money and fled. QCPR McTaggart declined to name the injured officer pending family notification. The officer was taken to Iowa Lutheran Hospital. Therapy The two other suspects "split up after the robbery,· McTaggart said. He declined to say if Byrd is the alleged assailant.

12131/2004

Undercover Miami Officer Shot, Wounded During Raid

A 10 year veteran of the Miami Police Department who served a recent tour of duty in Iraq, was shot in the leg during a undercove drug raid is in stable condition.

Officer Raul Iglesia was in stable condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital. He is expected to fully recover.

The shooting occurred about 8:20 p.m. on Tuesday while he was attempting to take down two drug dealers; the subjects attempted to flee from the parking lot of an apartment building at 2040 N.W. 3 avenue.

As the two tried to escape, one turned around and shot the officer in the leg. The shooter was then shot in the leg by another office . The suspect was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital for medical treatment.

The suspect faces numerous charges. ------Planning to research, evaluate or purchase product for yourself or your department? Check out PoliceOne's Product Research Categories to help you make an informed purchase. http://www.policeone.comlproductsl 0511412003

Suspect Drives Over Undercover Officer

Officer suffered road rash, broken ribs and internal injuries.

By MIKE WISER, Rockford (Ill.) Register Star

ROCKFORD, ILL. -A man driving a stolen vehicle struck an undercover Belvidere police officer, dragging him about 25 feet before making a clean getaway Monday morning.

Brandon Parker, a six-year veteran assigned to the Illinois State Police Auto Theft Task Force, suffered severe road rash, broken ibs and internal injuries to the spleen and lungs.

Parker fired his service revolver at least once at the suspect, but it's not known if the driver was hit. Parker is under police guard at a Rockford hospital recovering from his injuries, which Belvidere Police Chief Jan Noble said were "serious."

Police don,t yet have a reliable description of the suspect although there were several witnesses to the incident which happened at 10:46 a.m. at the Amoco station at Auburn Street and North Central Avenue.

The stolen gray Honda Pilotwas found about 15 minutes later in the parking lot of the Logli's supermarket on North Rockton Avenue, about two miles away from the Amoco. ·

At a 3 p.m. press conference, Noble, Rockford Deputy Police Chief Dominic lasparro and Illinois State Police Capt. Mark Hinchy encouraged anyone with information to contact police. They also offered support to Parker and his family.

'"There's absolutely no criticism of this officer as far as the tactics and techniques that he used," lasparro said. "From a practical, realistic standpoint, did the officer do what he should have done today? He absolutely did, and he did a great job."

Parker, 29, was in plainclothes when he spotted the 2003 Honda which had been reported stolen from a private residence a month ago. The driver was working under the hood, so Parker punched its license plate into his computer to check the SUV's status.

The plates came back as belonging to another Honda which was also reported stolen. Parker decided to talk to the man.

Parker approached the Honda, with its driver now inside and the door open. The two apparently exchanged some words and the suspect slammed on the gas.

The Honda knocked Parker to the ground and ran over him. The Honda crushed Parker, driving diagonally over his body starting at e left shoulder, Noble said.

Sometime during this, Parker was able to fire at least one round at the suspect. He made it back to his car and called for help.

itial broadcast reports from the 911 communications center indicated an officer had been shot. Within minutes, more than 30 qockford police officers in marked and unmarked squad cars swarmed the. gas station and blocked the northbound lanes of Central

"There were Rockford officers at the (Auburn Street Gas ?N Glo) car wash. They left their cars and ran here," lasparro said. 'The area was saturated. The initial report was a police officer had been shot, so the response by police officers was pretty massive."

Officers fanned out from the scene and located the SUV at the supermarket's employee parking lot parked between two other cars.

e driver's side taillight on the SUV was broken and red paint was scratched across the front end. The rear passenger door also was dented.

Wood chips were found embedded in the front-end grill and along the bottom of the vehicle. Police had the vehicle impounded. bullet holes or blood was found.

"We have done a preliminary search of the vehicle, but not an extensive search," lasparro said. "We will keep it as long as we ee: to until the investigation is complete."

Parker's department-issued .45-caliber pistol and one of his shoes remained at the scene even after he had been rushed to t e hospital.

Noble said Parker will get as much time as he needs to recover. It's at least the third time Parker was injured in the line of duty. ,.,. February 2000, he dislocated and fractured his elbow while breaking up a bar fight in Belvidere. He reinjured the elbow when it smacked against a mirror of a truck that was passing by an accident scene in May 2000.

Winnebago County State's Attorney Paul Logli said the suspect, if caught, likely faces at least a felony charge of aggravated b to a police officer. The crime is punishable by up to five years in prison.

"This points out the inherent danger in all lines of police work," Logli said.

"As the office that handles criminal prosecution in this jurisdiction, we would be very interested that this person be located. We would like to bring the full force of the law onto this situation. Our officers deserve protection."

Profile: Brandon Parker

*Age: 29

* Occupation: Six years with the Belvidere Police Department, which includes three years as part of the Illinois State Police Auto Theft Task Force.

The task force, formed in 1993, is headed by the Illinois State Police. It includes officers from northern Illinois police departments. They are trained in auto theft investigations and work undercover to recover stolen vehicles and break up auto theft rings.

* Family: Married, one child.

Planning to research, evaluate or purchase product for yourself or your department? Check out PoliceOne's Product Research Categories to help you make an informed purchase.

http://www.policeone.comlproductsl Gunfire erupts during Pa. drug buy; suspect held

By Paul Peirce Tribine Review

An undercover drug buy gone awry Wednesday afternoon resulted in gunfire in Hempfield Township, directly across Route 30 from Westmoreland Mall.

The shooting and a subsequent high-speed chase led to the arrest of James Paul Henderson, 37, of Greensburg RD3, who was identified by the office of New Kensington District Judge Frank Pallone.

Henderson was apprehended by state police three miles from e shooting in the village of Bovard only a few minutes after the 1 p.m. incident. No one was injured.

"There was a pre-planned drug-buy operation by our undercover officers and the actor suddenly decided not to cooperate," state police spokeswoman Jeanne Martin said.

"We don't know what happened ... maybe he began believing he was dealing with police officers," she said.

The transaction was to take place in a parking lot directly off Donohoe Road Extension near the McDonald's and Automatic Car Wash just across Route 30 from the mall, police said.

"The suspect started to back his car up, striking one of our unmarked cars. As he began pulling away in the parking lot from the undercover officers, another car with two uniformed troopers approached and he waved a firearm out of his window at them like he was going to shoot," Martin said.

Martin said the two troopers in the car, believing Henderson was going to open fire, ducked down in their car, and because of the commotion did not know whether he fired.

However, Martin said the undercover officers nearby believed they heard a shot. Police then fired, she said.

It was not certain how many shots were fired.

Henderson then drove east along Donohoe Road and Crows Nest Road toward Bovard Road.

About a dozen more officers were summoned to the pursuit as well as a state police helicopter.

"Once he got to Bovard, he abandoned his vehicle and ran into a house (on Prisani Street, formerly Third Street). The woman who resides in the house didn't believe she knew the man and said she chased him out of her home," Martin said.

Henderson, who police dispatchers said walked nonchalantly out of the house on the 200 block of Prisani Street, was apprehended by police a short time later.

Police obtained a search warrant and were still looking for Henderson's handgun last night around the vicinity of the house and in the car. They also called in a police search dog from Jeannette.

Police also were looking for items Henderson reportedly dropped while fleeing.

Ryan Walters, of Third Street, Bovard, said he was just driving away from his home when he saw the car chase approaching.

"They were going like 90 miles an hour around the bend. I turned around and came back home because I live right here and wondered what was happening," he said. was dented.

Wood chips were found embedded in the'front-end grill and along the bottom of the vehicle. Police had the vehicle impounded. No bullet holes or blood was found.

''We have done a preliminary search of the vehicle, but not an extensive search," lasparro said. "We will keep it as long as we need to until the investigation is complete."

Parker's department-issued .45-caliber pistol and one of his shoes remained at the scene even after he had been rushed to the hospital.

Noble said Parker will get as much time as he needs to recover. It's at least the third time Parker was injured in the line of duty. In February 2000, he dislocated and fractured his elbow while breaking up a bar fight in Belvidere. He reinjured the elbow when it smacked against a mirror of a truck that was passing by an accident scene in May 2000.

Winnebago County State's Attorney Paullogli said the suspect, if caught, likely faces at least a felony charge of aggravated battery to a police off1cer. The crime is punishable by up to five years in prison.

"This points out the inherent danger in all lines of police work," logli said_

Profile: Brandon Parker

.. Age: 29

.. Occupation: Six years with the Belvidere Police Department, which includes three years as part of the Illinois State Police Auto Theft Task Force.

* Family: Married, one child. --·----···-·- -·------·----.. Planning to research, evaluate or purchase product for yourself or your department? Check out PoliceOne's Product Research Categories to help you make an informed purchase.

http://www.po/iceone.comlproducts! Gunfire erupts during Pa. drug buy; suspect held

By Paul Peirce Tribine Review

An undercover drug buy gone awry Wednesday afternoon resulted in gunfire in Hempfield Township, directly across Route 30 from Westmoreland Mall.

The shooting and a subsequent high-speed chase led to the arrest of James Paul Henderson, 37, of Greensburg RD3, who was identified by the office of New Kensington District Judge Frank Pallone.

Henderson was apprehended by state police three miles from the shooting in the village of Bovard only a few minutes after the 1 p.m. incident. No one was injured.

"There was a pre-planned drug-buy operation by our undercover officers and the actor suddenly decided not to cooperate," state police spokeswoman Jeanne Martin said.

"We don't know what happened ... maybe he began believing he was dealing with police officers," she said.

The transaction was to take place in a parking lot directly off Donohoe Road Extension near the McDonald's and Automatic Car Wash just across Route 30 from the mall, police said.

"The suspect started to back his car up, striking one of our unmarked cars. As he began pulling away in the parking lot from the undercover officers, another car with two uniformed trooper'S approached and he waved a firearm out of his window at them like he was going to shoot," Martin said.

Martin said the two troopers in the car, believing Henderson was going to open fire, ducked down in their car, and because of the commotion did not know whether he fired.

However, Martin said the undercover officers nearby believed they heard a shot. Police then fired, she said.

It was not certain how many shots were fired.

Henderson then drove east along Donohoe Road and Crows Nest Road toward Bovard Road.

About a dozen more officers were summoned to the pursuit as well as a state police helicopter.

Henderson, who police dispatchers said walked nonchalantly out of the house on the 200 block of Prisani Street, was apprehended by police a short time later.

Police obtained a search warrant and were still looking for Henderson's handgun last night around the vicinity of the house and in the car. They also called in a police search dog from Jeannette.

Police also were looking for items Henderson reportedly dropped while fleeing.

Ryan Walters, of Third Street, Bovard, said he was just driving away from his home when he saw the car chase approaching.

"They were going like 90 miles an hour around the bend. I turned around and came back home because I live right here and wondered what was happening," he said. Walters said he didn't see police capture Henderson.

Police cordoned off the area surrounding the 200 block of Prisani Street and a nearby alley, where Henderson's car was being searched.

Henderson's late-model, red Mercury sedan, which was towed from Bovard, had a visible bullet hole and scrapes in the driver's side door. The side mirror also was missing.

Martin said Henderson is believed to have been the only suspect involved in the drug deal with the undercover officers.

Henderson was arraigned in night court before Pallone via Web camera from the state police barracks in Greensburg. He is charged with simple assault, aggravated assault, criminal attempt to commit criminal homicide, and recklessly endangering another person, the court official said.

Henderson was transported last night to Westmoreland County Jail, where he remains in lieu of $250,000 straight cash bond.

Seven Tactical Principles

The seven tactical principles identified below are not some cleverly kept secret or some mysterious formula that can enhance safety in law enforcement. These principles are tried and true safety enhancers and in fact are very widely recognized when viewed as independent elements.

Over the course of my 25 year law enforcement career in one application or another, I had an opportunity to implement all of these strategies to my advantage. In this article I would like to introduce the 7 tactical principles as a cohesive officer safety system. This system can be applied at many different levels of law enforcement and in many different situations.

These principles are as follows:

• Cover • Threat Cuesffhreat Assessment • Time/Distance Ratio • The Plus One Rule • De-escalation ·Verbalization • The Winning Mind

Cover

In any given situation, officers must evaluate what their status is with respect to cover. In properly understanding this concept one must realize that there are two types of cover; cover from fire and cover from view. As a young SWAT officer I was told "you may not always have cover from fire, but you should always have cover from view".

Obviously there is a fundamental difference between cover from fire and cover from view. The distinction is best described in this fashion; cover from fire provides the officer with protection from high caliber rounds. Cover from view provides the officer with protection from an assailant or potential assailant because the assailant cannot see the officer. Every officer needs to remember that if someone can see you they can shoot at you.

Cover from fire can be obtained from objects that are made of metal or concrete. It can also be obtained in nature by slipping into a depression in the ground or crawling behind a hill of dirt. Large living trees can also provide officers with cover from fire. Although cover from fire is obviously preferred it might not be strategically beneficial. For example, the only tree in a field may provide cover from fire but it could isolate an officer. Huge risk may have been undertaken to obtain the cover and the officer, in obtaining the cover may be outside of the effective range of their own firearm.

For clarity, the effective range of a firearm is measured not in the effectiveness of the weapon but in the ability of the individual officer, when under stress, to deliver deadly, accurate gunfire.

At the most basic level, all officers wear or should wear personal cover from fire, what I am referring to is body armor. I am . pleased to see that this generation of law enforcement officer is prepared to accept armor as a required piece of kit. It also appears to me that technology has continued to both improve the capabilities of armor as well as its comfort level.

By constantly evaluating their cover or their need for cover and by comprehensively understanding the true nature and different types of cover, law enforcement officers can seriously enhance their safety.

Threat CuesfThreat Assessment

To further enhance their safety, officers must constantly monitor and evaluate threat cues. Most of those involved in law enforcement are already aware of this tactic however, I believe there is a more global approach to threat cue interpretation than simply observing the body language and verbal information that is presented and provided by a subject. The activities associated to this tactical principle can best be described as intelligence gathering and reconnoitering.

When dealing with an individual or when involved in a situation, it is incumbent on officers to have complete situational awareness and they have to be articulate in the dynamics of conflict. Situational awareness is the comprehensive understanding of where an officer is, what their spatial relationship is to the subjects he or she is dealing with, cover requirements, and escape routes, etc.

With respect to contingency planning, and in conjunction with sound intelligence gathering, law enforcement officers have to continually ask themselves a series of questions:

• How can I obtain cover if required? • Did I remove myself from a position of cover to deal with this situation? • Have I conducted a weapons inventory regarding opportunity weapons? • Is there an escape route, if I have to tactically disengage? • Is my body positioning appropriate to the circumstance?

Considerations for contingency planning have to also include knowledge of conflict dynamics. Understanding that many things can happen in a short period of time can lead officers down the positive path of pre-planning and the initiation of exigent circumstance or immediate action plans.

Time/Distance Ratio

This tactical principle is straight forward and important for officers to grasp. What is learned from the time-distance ratio is that there is a direct correlation between time and distance during conflict.

For example, if an officer can put distance between himself and a subject, it takes longer for the subject to initiate contact with the officer. The more time the officer has, the more likely that the officer will be able to develop alternate action plans and avoid making snap decisions.

(This rule excludes firearms as the delivery system for a firearm is spontaneous).

Many officers are familiar with the term "minimum space cushionn; this tells us that there is a relative comfort zone for officers during a conflict. The distances that have been established for the minimum space cushion range from 21 to 32 feet.

With respect to conflict dynamics, officers must realize that when in motion, an adult human can cover 10 feet every second. Constantly evaluating distance can assist officers in developing their minimum space cushion for any given encounter.

The Plus One Rule

Like the time/distance ratio, the plus one rule is very straight forward. There is always one more than you think there is; so no matter what it is you are looking for, conduct a thorough and complete search.

There is nothing worse than leaving somewhere or someone and then having the thought that the premises or the subject or both weren't searched properly. To avoid these unsettling feeling officers should develop logical search systems that are subject to practice and repetition.

The implementation of effective searching techniques inclusive of building clearing tactics will ensure that the officer has included the plus one rule in their strategic planning.

De-escalation

At the end of the day, law enforcement officers are mandated in force application situations to incorporate the minimal amount of force that is necessary or reasonable in any given encounter. De-escalation or the attempt to de-escalate will serve officers well in surviving once the incident has been concluded.

It goes without saying that officer survival is paramount in any task that requires an officer's attention. De-escalation is a form of housekeeping that can be initiated to ensure that the officer not only acutely survives a situation, but has implemented appropriate measures to ensure after the fact survival.

All force encounters involving law enforcement officers will be examined with a fine toothed comb. The actions that individual officers undertake at the time of force application can lead to surviving internal disciplinary proceedings, or criminal investigations. These actions include de-escalation or at the very least attempted de-escalation.

Verbalization

Another after the fact survival principle is verbalization. Like de-escalation, an officers verbal actions can not only assist as a Gunman shot during undercover drug arrest in Baltimore

By Gus G. Sentementes, Sun Reporter The Baltimore Sun

It was a tough week for Maj. John Dodson and his officers in Baltimore's Eastern District.

On Wednesday, two of his patrol officers tried to pull over a woman in a stolen car on East North Avenue. As the police approached her, an officer accidentally shot another officer, who was saved from serious injury by his bullet-resistant vest.

Then today, as undercover officers broke up a suspected drug deal and arrested a man, police said another man suddenly appeared and began shooting. Three of Dodson's patrol officers chased the man for several blocks gunfire along the way -and shot and wounded him in an alley.

"It's been different," said Dodson, a 24-year veteran who has commanded the Eastern District since mid-2004. "I've gotten two phone calls this week, one of which a commander dreads: that an officer was shot."

Today's incident started around 10:30 a.m. when undercover officers from the organized crime division were watching suspected drug dealers in the 1800 block of Hope St. near Green Mount Cemetery. Officers saw a stash of drugs and arrested one man, recovering 25 gel caps of suspected heroin, police said.

They were waiting for a prisoner transport wagon when a man with a gun appeared and fired at the officers, police said.

The police gave chase down streets and alleys. The gunman was hit and collapsed in an alley between Aisquith and Holbrook streets, police said.

The man's identity, and that of three patrol officers who shot at the man, were not released today. The wounded man's injuries were described as not life- threatening.

Deputy Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld Ill said the officers who made the initial drug arrest were acting undercover, buthad identified themselves as officers and that uniformed patrol officers were nearby. 'We believe it was clear to the people in the area that these were indeed Baltimore City policemen," Bealefeld said.

Preliminary police reports indicate that the suspect fired between eight and 10 rounds at the officers. The crime scene was spread over a several-block area in the Oliver neighborhood. Crime lab technicians could be seen recovering shell casings and evidence at several different locations, while patrol officers knocked on doors and interviewed residents

"I heard gunshots and I saw a boy on the ground," said Nakia Brown, 15, who lives in the 1600 block of Holbrook St.

The officers involved in today's gun battle are from the same squad involved in an accidental shooting on Wednesday on nearby North Avenue.

One officer shot a colleague by mistake as they converged on a car believed to have been occupied by a person with a gun. The wounded officer, David Hare Jr., was hit in his vest. He suffered minor injuries and walked out of the hospital the same day. The officer who fired his weapon was identified as Claude Torres.

"That incident was unbelievable," Dodson said. Hare was more worried about the officer who shot him than himself.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW WESTMINSTER, British Columbia (AP) --An undercover police officer put into the same cell as an alleged serial killer testified Monday that the jailed pig farmer voiced concerns about being "nailed to the cross" for dozens of suspected slayings.

Jurors also were shown part of a video taken while the officer was in the cell with Robert William Pickton on Feb. 22, 2002, after the farmer was arrested in connection with at least two murders.

Pickton is on trial for six alleged murders and is to be tried later on 20 additional murder counts. Most of the slain women were prostitutes or drug addicts among hundreds of women who disappeared from Vancouver's gritty Downtown Eastside neighborhood. He denies guilt.

During opening arguments in late January, prosecutors told jurors the undercover officer coaxed Pickton into telling him about the murders. Pickton is alleged to have said he killed 49 women and had meant to make it "an even 50" but that his sloppiness led to his arrest.

Jurors had yet to hear that part of the conversation by midday Monday.

The defense questioned Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers last week about the ethics of lying to Pickton to gain his trust.

The undercover officer, whose identify cannot be revealed under Canadian law, told the court Monday as the trial entered its third week that he was not given any details about the man he was supposed to spy on.

The officer, who said his cover story was that he was being held on attempted murder charges, said Pickton told him he had been arrested on two counts of first-degree murder.

"He was concerned about this, said they were looking at another 50 charges against him with relation to this," the officer testified.

The 12 jurors watched portions of a videotape in which the officer portrayed himself as angry over being put in a cell with another prisoner. The two eventually struck up a conversation about what brought them there.

The officer pretended to be skeptical when Pickton told him why he was arrested. Police would have to prove it, the officer said.

"They don't have to prove nothing," Pickton said. "They can set you up."

Pickton kept on talking to the undercover officer, even after the officer noted that their conversation was likely being recorded on the videocamera that he pointed out in a bubble in the cell.

During the conversation, Pickton appeared disheveled and pounded his bed with his fists. "My name is mud,'' he said. "I'm nailed to the cross. Screwed and tattooed."

Pickton, 56, also told the officer about an attempted murder charge against him in 1997. In the videotape, he blamed the woman for the charge against him, which was later dropped. He said the woman knifed him because she wanted $3,400 he was carrying. Suspect Shot During Struggle with Undercover Police Officer

Suspect Shot During Struggle with Undercover Police Officer

By Associated Press

WAKEFIELD, Mass. -A man who was shot during a scuffle with an undercover police officer in Wakefield is recovering at a local hospital.

Police say it happened last night when officers stopped the unidentified man's car to arrest him on drug charges.

One of the officers had his gun drawn when the suspect allegedly attacked him. During the struggle, police say the suspect caused the officer's gun to go off and the bullet struck the man in the ann.

The officer is a member of the Southern Middlesex Regional Drug Task Force. Police are not releasing his name or saying which department he works for. Ap Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Undercover Penn. officer shot, wounded

Undercover safety tips by P-1 featured columnist Dave Smith

• Gather as much intelligence on the perp as possible; any rumor or history of weapons or violence, or unusual demands are cues that should make you pick a more public place for the deal. • The Undercover Officer or Confidential lnfonnant must control the location. • Train all your U/C officers on close quarter defense to stop a possible deadly threat.

An undercover Pittsburgh vice squad detective was shot last night while chasing a suspected prostitute who was trying to run from the officer and his partner.

The wounded officer, Detective Jeffrey Smith, was in good condition last night at Mercy Hospital with a gunshot wound to the side of his abdomen, said Police Chief Nate Harper, who visited with the 23-year police veteran and his wife at the hospital.

The shooting occurred about 8:30 p.m on De Ruad Street in West Oakland, just below the Hill District.

A suspect was taken into custody later in the evening and was being questioned by detectives at police headquarters. Chief Harper said.

Chief Harper gave this account of the shooting:

Detective Smith and his unidentified partner picked up the prostitute on Fifth Avenue, posing as customers.

The two officers and the woman drove a short distance and offered the woman money in exchange for sex.

A short time later, when the two men identified themselves as police officers, the woman jumped out of the car and began running on Wyandotte Street.

The officers followed her to De Ruad Street, where Detective Smith got out of the car and began running after the woman. Just as he was about to catch her, Chief Harper said, the woman turned and shot him, then fled toward the Hill District.

Detective Smith was not wearing a bulletproof vest, Chief Harper He said officers usually do not wear one during such operations because they would be noticed by prostitutes.

Dozens of police responded to the scene and began combing the area, including parts of the Hill District and Oakland.

In addition to city detectives and the police Special Emergency Response Team, officers from the sheriffs department, Allegheny County police, Pittsburgh Housing Authority police and agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives assisted.

State police sent a helicopter to the scene.

Chief Harper said the wounded officer appeared to be doing well in the hospital.

"He's alert and in good condition," the chief said.