Ex-NYPD Cop Turns Sniper, Shoots Up NYC Neighborhood

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Ex-Cop Turns Sniper, Injures Teacher

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Police At Stuyvesant Town Shooting (Photo by Moises Saman)
Oct 2, 2002

NYPD Commissioner Kelly At Shooting Scene (Photo by Moises Saman)
Oct 2, 2002

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By Sean Gardiner, Melanie Lefkowitz and Elena Malykhina
Staff Writers

October 3, 2002

A former police officer fired more than 20 shots at his "Stuy Town"
neighbors yesterday, grazing a preschool teacher who was leading
children through the normally quiet housing complex, and striking
neighbors' cars and windows, police said.

Shooting from his fourth-floor apartment at 647 E. 14th St. in
Stuyvesant Town, Brian Berrigan, 33, fired in three separate spurts
over 2-1/2 hours before being captured, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly
said.

Ayana Reyes, 25, was grazed in the left shoulder as she was
shepherding eight children from the Manhattan Kids Club II preschool
to a playground.

"I didn't know I was shot -- all I could think of is, I don't know
what hit me, I'm bleeding, I'm here with all these kids, I was just
thinking of getting them back into the school," she said last night.
"I didn't know it was such a big commotion until just now."

Reyes, who was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center, received five
sutures to close the wound.

Police sources said that it does not appear Berrigan knew Reyes and
that the shooting was likely random.

"I'm definitely counting my blessings," she said. "I don't think that
person was aiming at me. I just think he was going through some
issues."

Kelly said Berrigan was hired by the Police Department in June 1995
and was assigned to the 23rd Precinct on the Upper East Side of
Manhattan. He was fired in July 1997 for failing a drug test. Police
said Berrigan tested positive for cocaine at the time.

Police sources said it appears Berrigan, who told detectives he now
works in construction, had been drinking alcohol yesterday after his
wife threatened to leave him.

He was charged with two counts of attempted murder; two counts of
first-degree assault; seven counts of first-degree reckless
endangerment; and seven counts of third degree criminal mischief. He
was awaiting arraignment last night.

Word of a sniper in the complex, 36 buildings between 14th and 20th
streets and First Avenue and Avenue C, reached police just after 11:30
a.m. yesterday, prompting a major mobilization.

East 14th Street was closed and police helicopters, dogs and 200
officers flooded the area. Officers escorted residents off the block
or ordered them to "get back in the buildings," a neighbor, Felix
Martorano, said.

Others, such as retired city worker Michael O'Connor, 71, spent more
than two hours huddled in a basement laundry room on police orders.

At about 2 p.m., police were able to narrow the location of the
shooter. Officers then knocked on apartment doors to eliminate
suspects, police said.

When officers pounded on apartment 4B at 647 E. 14th St. there was no
answer. Using a passkey, the officers opened the door and found
Berrigan sitting at the dining room table with his back to them,
police said. Several spent shell casings were on the floor beneath the
window, police said.

The officers rushed Berrigan, wrestled him to the ground and
handcuffed him. As they did so, police said, Berrigan said he did not
understand why he was being placed in custody, police said.

When officers asked Berrigan if he had a gun, he told them he had one
in a bedroom closet, police said. Officers found a pellet gun in that
closet. A .22-caliber rifle police say they believe was used in the
shootings was also found in the closet. It was hidden inside a garment
bag, covered by a fur coat, police said.

At the 13th Precinct station house, Berrigan broke down in tears and
admitted he fired the shots, police sources said.

Harry Joslin, 84, whose apartment faces Berrigan, said he heard a
"sharp, cracking sound" yesterday morning that he thought came from
construction workers in the complex. He noticed a window shade in his
living room appeared to have been knocked off kilter. When he moved
the shade he saw a bullet hole in the window, he said.

Joslin, a retired housing court supervisor, said he called his
son-in-law to ask him what to do and two more shots came through his
window. Joslin then called police and was told to stay in the
apartment and keep away from the windows.

"The last time I was shot at was in World War II," he said.
Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc.