Ex-Cop Shot Dead
After Killing Attacker

By BILL EGBERT and MARTIN MBUGUA
Daily News Staff Writers

former cop was fatally shot, but not before gunning down one of the would-be robbers who attacked him during a botched stickup in the Bronx yesterday, police said.

Michael Brown, 44, was entering his girlfriend's first-floor apartment in University Heights when at least three armed men pushed their way through the door shortly before 4 p.m.

Brown, who resigned from the force in 1983 after serving about two years, took out his gun and fired, fatally striking one of the thugs. But at least one of them shot the former officer.

Brown's girlfriend, Cheri Batista, ran crying from her Davidson Ave. apartment to a relative's grocery store around the corner and pleaded for help, said Merlin Cartajena, who works at the bodega.

"She said, 'Help me, call the police, someone came into my apartment and shot my boyfriend,'" Cartajena said.

"She ran because she was scared. She said she did not know what was going on."

Police found Brown and the suspect, whose name wasn't immediately released, on the floor.

Brown's van was double-parked in front of the building.

"It's scary because I have kids," said Melinda Curet, 39, an administrative assistant who lives on the fourth floor. "If this could happen in broad daylight ... it's a tragedy. Now I am even scared to open my door."

Another neighbor, Joseph Boadu, said the shooting stunned people who live in the tan brick building, which has a gated courtyard.

"In the 10 years that I have lived here, nothing [like this] has happened," said the 51-year-old architect. "I was shocked when police came to my door and started asking questions."

Nero Graham, board president of Mount Hope Housing Co. which runs the five-story building, said neighbors have complained about the apartment where the shooting happened. The three young women living there are not the official tenants, Graham said.

"We've got a lot of complaints about that apartment," he said. "Lots of traffic in and out at all hours, day and night."

Original Publication Date: 9/10/01

September 10, 2001

Shootout in a Bronx Apartment Leaves Robber and Victim Dead
By DANIEL J. WAKIN

In what appears to have been a push-in robbery gone awry, the would-be victim and one of his assailants died in a burst of gunfire inside a Bronx apartment yesterday afternoon, the police said.

Scores of onlookers in the Morris Heights section filled the street as police scoured a first-floor apartment at 1822 Davidson Avenue and picked apart a gray van, searching for evidence. The noisy crowd grew silent when officers brought out two black body bags at 9:30 p.m.

A police spokesman, Sgt. Richard Kemmler, identified the robbery victim as Michael J. Brown, 44, and said the Police Department was trying to confirm reports that Mr. Brown had served briefly as a police officer.

What exactly happened inside the apartment was sketchy early today. Sergeant Kemmler said witnesses saw four men enter the five-story walk-up, then heard shots soon afterward.

"It looks like it was a robbery," he said. "What it appears happened is they forced their way in behind this individual into the apartment, where there was a struggle. There were shots fired. Two people fell. Those left standing were then seen running out."

It was possible that Mr. Brown fatally shot one of his attackers, Sergeant Kemmler said, but ballistics tests had to be performed before that could be determined.

The apartment, 1A, was rented to Gregory's Grocery, a bodega around the corner on West 177th Street, said the building's management. At the grocery, a clerk, Merlin Cartagena, said a relative of hers came running in around 4 p.m.

"She was crying," Ms. Cartagena said. "She said they shot her boyfriend, and I called the police." The woman recounted that the attackers had grabbed her and twisted her arm, but that she managed to break free, Ms. Cartagena said.

Ms. Cartagena did not identify the woman, but said she lived in the apartment and was the niece of her husband. The woman said her boyfriend owned a restaurant, and had come to bring her food and a gold necklace because it was her birthday, Ms. Cartagena said. -- NY Times



Oh Lord, may Michael Brown forever be in your care. We know that You have not taken our friend away, You have given us another guardian angel!