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The True Story of the NYPD's Most Decorated Detective and the Era That Created Him, As Seen On Discovery Channel's "Street Justice: The Bronx"
Street Warrior
by Ralph Friedman and Patrick Picciarelli
November 1, 1972âConfines of the 41st Pct., the Bronx
It was a very cool and exceptionally sunny day, the glare bouncing off the windshield with laser-like annoyance. The neighborhood streets, while somewhat crowded, didnât contain the teeming humanity that wouldâve been present during the summer months. In the humidity festival that is New York during July and August, the South Bronx natives spill onto the streets in an effort to escape the stifling heat of the tenements and high-rise projects. Street gambling, drinking, and hanging out on building stoops were usually a precursor to violence. The higher the temperature, the hotter the tempers flared, and assaults and homicides were sure to follow. You knew autumn arrived in the South Bronx when the domino games moved indoors and the homicide rate began to dip to very high, down from extremely high.
Soon after weâd lost count of how many times weâd driven every street in the command, and with our stomachs growling louder than the carâs motor, we contemplated a trip to a neighboring precinct, where we wouldnât get poisoned grabbing something to eat. In the middle of our food fantasyâtwo of copsâ favorite topics are food and sexâthe radio run that would change our lives came over the portable: âA signal 10-31, 992 Fox Street, top floor. Units to respond?â
A 10-31 was the code designation for a burglary in progress, a job that obviously required immediate attention. We were a few blocks away from the location. I nodded to Kal and keyed the radio. âFour-One Anti-Crime in plainclothes will take that, Central.â Vocalizing that we were in civvies might save us from getting shot by a unit from another command that was passing through without knowing who we were; although two white men in military fatigue jackets and jeans (the unofficial uniform of Anti-Crime cops) waving guns should have been a strong hint that we were the good guys.
âAnything further, Central?â I asked.
The dispatcher came back: âAnonymous call of a male entering the location via the roof. Nothing further.â
âNothing furtherâ left open myriad possibilities: Was the bad guy armed? (Most burglars arenât because it raises the degree of the crime, and, as such, the jail sentence, but maybe this burglar hadnât read the penal law.) A description of the bad guy wouldâve been nice, but we didnât have that either. Or was the job just bullshit, called in by some local asshole to see how many cops would respond for nothing? Bogus calls were an official sport in the South Bronx.
The bottom line was that we had to be careful, and so out came the guns. Iâd never worked in another precinct and thus didnât know how cops elsewhere operated; in the Four-One, the very least you did was have your hand on your firearm for every call you responded to. The proverbial cat stuck in a tree would be no exception. You never knew what to expect, even from the most mundane of calls.
Kal pulled up a few doors away from the Fox Street address off Westchester Avenue. Parking directly in front of a destination address is ill advised in case of a setup. Hard to believe, but there are people who donât like cops and who think ambushing a few sounds like a fun time. We were the first unit to arrive. The area had a smattering of civilians on the street, some watching the passing parade from a window perch, most not giving us a second glance as we exited the car and ran for number 992. Constant police activity was so common in the South Bronx that the sight of two white men with guns drawn would not have been a rarity.
We knew other cops were on the way, but we didnât know how long it would take for them to arrive. A burglary-in-progress call usually dictated no sirens to avoid warning the bad guys. Flashing roof lights on radio cars and speed balls on the dashboards of unmarked vehicles were a good tactical alternative because theyâre silent, and we wouldnât hear them until they had already arrived. That said, we were working in the South Bronx, where lights and sirens on police vehicles are a suggestion, not a law, to yield rightof-way. Typical responses from drivers were streams of curses and invectives involving your mother. Drivers did what they wanted to do; only fire department vehicles got respect . . . sometimes.
As we raced toward the entrance to the building, Kal and I kept glancing up at the rooftops. If this call was an ambush, death would most likely come from above. Even if it wasnât a planned execution, many youths in the area liked to toss stuff off rooftops at responding cops, usually bricks, which often were âpreloadedâ on roofs in anticipation of the inevitable visit by cops. Iâve seen everything raining down from above. Including commodes. It was bad enough being brained by a brick, but to suffer the indignity of getting crushed by a toilet bowl was the ultimate embarrassment. If you survived, which was highly doubtful, youâd be called Shithead for the rest of your career.
The building was typical for the area: prewar (which war was always the questionâsome tenements were over a hundred years old), narrow, sometimes with a short cement stairway leading to the door. Buildings varied in condition from serviceable to not fit for human habitation. This one was somewhere in-between. What most of these structures had in common was the overpowering odor of urine throughout the building. Why tenants would pee in their own hallway rather than wait to get into their apartments always mystified me. Maybe they were marking their territory.
Kal was the first in through the door leading from the street. The smell hit us like we got bitch-slapped by a tree limb. After hundreds of times in these broken-down buildings, youâd figure Iâd be used to it, but, as with the aroma of a ripe dead body, you never acclimate. Who the hell can live like this? Peeling paint, broken door locks, crud on the floors so deep you can shovel it off. Be it ever so crumbled thereâs no place like home, I suppose.
We raced up the stairs as quickly as our feet could carry us. Need I say that these buildings had no elevators? And even if they did, they probably wouldnât work.
âWhy are these fucking jobs always on the top floor?â Kal asked as he took the stairs two at a time.
As we hit the top-floor landing, we heard the first scream. Loud and shrill, it came from a female, and she sounded terrified. The hallway was dimly lit with no windows, common with these types of buildings, and the building housed five apartments per floor. The scream focused our attention toward the apartment at the far end of the narrow hallway. The door frame on the apartment was splintered, leaving the door pushed in and off one of its hinges.
I was out of breath and my heart was pounding as Kal and I flanked the frame for a moment and listened for somethingâanythingâthat might give us an edge when we entered. Just then we heard another piercing howl, and we knew trying to formulate a tactical plan might not be in the best interest of the victim, who sounded as if she was getting tortured. Our presence was required insideânow.
We busted through what remained of the door, side by side. What met us was total darkness, inky blackness. Blind as a bat, I couldnât see a damn thing. Entering the building from bright daylight didnât help, but at least the dimness of the hallway shouldâve helped our eyes adjust. It didnât. Later Iâd find out that the apartmentâs windows were covered in heavy blankets, sheets, and curtains that effectively blocked out all light.
The dark was disorienting; we had left our flashlights in the car because we were working what was left of the day tour. We both yelled âPolice!â several times just as another shriek blasted from somewhere in front of us.
We took a few cautious steps forward, trying to identify exactly where the screams were coming from. I was hoping my eyes would get used to the darkness, but that didnât happen.
Something moved, a sound to our right. Kal said, âWhat the fuck?â and the shooting started.
Muzzle blasts lit up the area. Weâd passed through a short foyer adjacent to the living room and were now standing in a hallway that led to the rear of the apartment. There was a black male three feet in front of us, shirtless, gun extended, firing rapidly. Kal went down almost immediately, firing his revolver as he pitched forward. The noise of the gunfight in a confined space was ear-shattering, and I felt as if an ice pick was being shoved into my brain.
I had my gun extended and was firing rounds at the guy who was shooting at us. The room was caught up in a strobe-like miasma of light, screams, and curses.
The gunman tried to get by me, but I grabbed his shoulder and we struggled, grunting and swearing, although our voices sounded muffled given the affect the gunshots had on my hearing. Everything was happening very quickly, yet it felt like slow motion. I was fighting for my life, nearly deaf from the gunshots, and wondering if Iâd been hit.
The shooter was about my height, medium build. A river of adrenaline was pumping through me, and I knew that if I didnât put him down, I was gonna die. I heard the approaching cavalryâthe job now a rapid response âshots fired,â allowing for flashing lights and sirens all the wayâor thought I did. The troops were coming, and I hoped theyâd arrive in time. As we fought, I pressed my gun against the gunmanâs chest, hoping that I still had ammo, and fired.
I heard the welcoming sound of a boom, no empty chamber click. The gunman went down like a dropped anchor. I found out later that heâd been hit a few times, but my last round got him square in the heart. The three of us had fired a total of eighteen rounds in what couldnât have been more than a ten-second gun battle in a space the area of a medium-size closet.
I was too pumped to feel fright or exhaustion. I dropped to the floor and grabbed Kal; he was unconscious. I didnât see much bloodâshit, I still didnât see much of anything. His fatigue jacket had absorbed most of it from several gunshots.
The apartment began filling with cops. The covers on the windows were being ripped down and everyone was talking, yelling. Sunlight streamed through the windows.
I was practically sitting on the dead gunman who was shoulder to shoulder with Kal. Now I could see that there was actually blood everywhere.
âMy partner, heâs hit!â I hollered.
Cops kneeled down. I heard exclamations of âOh, shit!,â âHeâs shot fucking bad!â More cops were pouring into the apartment. I tried to lift Kal and what seemed like a dozen hands joined the effort. Other cops pushed aside responding officers to make a path. We hoisted him in the air and raced down the stairs. There was no time to wait for an ambulance; seconds counted. Kal was going to be transported by radio car.
Someone had the presence of mind to call the dispatcher to have additional units clear the streets that lead to Jacobi Medical Center, which was over a mile away. Jacobi was where you took injured cops; they had excellent trauma teams. Department cars would block traffic at intersections in a race to get Kal immediate care.
We hit the street running, Kal seemingly lifeless in our grasp. The neighborhood denizens packed the street and were eerily quiet. Now was not the time to taunt the police. While they knew they could get away with almost anything right now, we would return and wouldnât be in a good mood.
Kal was placed as gently as possible on a copâs lap in the back of a marked car and the driver gunned it, lights and siren on overload. But there was a problem.
When timeâsecondsâmeant the difference between life and death for Kal (if he wasnât already dead), numerous responding radio cars had blocked the street, and the operators were everywhere but in their cars. I heard the driver of the car Kal was in, whose name has been lost to me by the span of years, say âFuck this!â before he began to ram the radio cars out of the way.
I watched the car disappear down the street, now joined by a phalanx of escorting vehicles. I wished I were leaving with him, but knew I wasnât going anywhere; a platoon of bosses would be on the scene shortly to interview me. As I reentered the building, two uniforms were supporting a woman who looked to be about thirty down the stairs. One cop was calling for an ambulance. She was banged up pretty badly, but otherwise seemed in decent shape. I figured she was the source of the screams weâd heard upstairs, and, when the gunfire started, she mustâve dove for cover in another room in the apartment.
I was being pulled in many directions. Questions came from everywhere. I didnât even know most of the brass who responded to the scene. Things got blurry; I was operating automatically, giving answers, taking accolades, recounting the shooting from various perspectives, and responding to the same questions from different sources over and over. I had lost track of time. I either remained on Fox Street for a few hours, or perhaps fifteen minutes. Pick one.
All I cared about was Kal. I needed to get to the hospital. My mind and heart were racing and I was beyond ramped up.
It was a very cool and exceptionally sunny day, the glare bouncing off the windshield with laser-like annoyance. The neighborhood streets, while somewhat crowded, didnât contain the teeming humanity that wouldâve been present during the summer months. In the humidity festival that is New York during July and August, the South Bronx natives spill onto the streets in an effort to escape the stifling heat of the tenements and high-rise projects. Street gambling, drinking, and hanging out on building stoops were usually a precursor to violence. The higher the temperature, the hotter the tempers flared, and assaults and homicides were sure to follow. You knew autumn arrived in the South Bronx when the domino games moved indoors and the homicide rate began to dip to very high, down from extremely high.
Soon after weâd lost count of how many times weâd driven every street in the command, and with our stomachs growling louder than the carâs motor, we contemplated a trip to a neighboring precinct, where we wouldnât get poisoned grabbing something to eat. In the middle of our food fantasyâtwo of copsâ favorite topics are food and sexâthe radio run that would change our lives came over the portable: âA signal 10-31, 992 Fox Street, top floor. Units to respond?â
A 10-31 was the code designation for a burglary in progress, a job that obviously required immediate attention. We were a few blocks away from the location. I nodded to Kal and keyed the radio. âFour-One Anti-Crime in plainclothes will take that, Central.â Vocalizing that we were in civvies might save us from getting shot by a unit from another command that was passing through without knowing who we were; although two white men in military fatigue jackets and jeans (the unofficial uniform of Anti-Crime cops) waving guns should have been a strong hint that we were the good guys.
âAnything further, Central?â I asked.
The dispatcher came back: âAnonymous call of a male entering the location via the roof. Nothing further.â
âNothing furtherâ left open myriad possibilities: Was the bad guy armed? (Most burglars arenât because it raises the degree of the crime, and, as such, the jail sentence, but maybe this burglar hadnât read the penal law.) A description of the bad guy wouldâve been nice, but we didnât have that either. Or was the job just bullshit, called in by some local asshole to see how many cops would respond for nothing? Bogus calls were an official sport in the South Bronx.
The bottom line was that we had to be careful, and so out came the guns. Iâd never worked in another precinct and thus didnât know how cops elsewhere operated; in the Four-One, the very least you did was have your hand on your firearm for every call you responded to. The proverbial cat stuck in a tree would be no exception. You never knew what to expect, even from the most mundane of calls.
Kal pulled up a few doors away from the Fox Street address off Westchester Avenue. Parking directly in front of a destination address is ill advised in case of a setup. Hard to believe, but there are people who donât like cops and who think ambushing a few sounds like a fun time. We were the first unit to arrive. The area had a smattering of civilians on the street, some watching the passing parade from a window perch, most not giving us a second glance as we exited the car and ran for number 992. Constant police activity was so common in the South Bronx that the sight of two white men with guns drawn would not have been a rarity.
We knew other cops were on the way, but we didnât know how long it would take for them to arrive. A burglary-in-progress call usually dictated no sirens to avoid warning the bad guys. Flashing roof lights on radio cars and speed balls on the dashboards of unmarked vehicles were a good tactical alternative because theyâre silent, and we wouldnât hear them until they had already arrived. That said, we were working in the South Bronx, where lights and sirens on police vehicles are a suggestion, not a law, to yield rightof-way. Typical responses from drivers were streams of curses and invectives involving your mother. Drivers did what they wanted to do; only fire department vehicles got respect . . . sometimes.
As we raced toward the entrance to the building, Kal and I kept glancing up at the rooftops. If this call was an ambush, death would most likely come from above. Even if it wasnât a planned execution, many youths in the area liked to toss stuff off rooftops at responding cops, usually bricks, which often were âpreloadedâ on roofs in anticipation of the inevitable visit by cops. Iâve seen everything raining down from above. Including commodes. It was bad enough being brained by a brick, but to suffer the indignity of getting crushed by a toilet bowl was the ultimate embarrassment. If you survived, which was highly doubtful, youâd be called Shithead for the rest of your career.
The building was typical for the area: prewar (which war was always the questionâsome tenements were over a hundred years old), narrow, sometimes with a short cement stairway leading to the door. Buildings varied in condition from serviceable to not fit for human habitation. This one was somewhere in-between. What most of these structures had in common was the overpowering odor of urine throughout the building. Why tenants would pee in their own hallway rather than wait to get into their apartments always mystified me. Maybe they were marking their territory.
Kal was the first in through the door leading from the street. The smell hit us like we got bitch-slapped by a tree limb. After hundreds of times in these broken-down buildings, youâd figure Iâd be used to it, but, as with the aroma of a ripe dead body, you never acclimate. Who the hell can live like this? Peeling paint, broken door locks, crud on the floors so deep you can shovel it off. Be it ever so crumbled thereâs no place like home, I suppose.
We raced up the stairs as quickly as our feet could carry us. Need I say that these buildings had no elevators? And even if they did, they probably wouldnât work.
âWhy are these fucking jobs always on the top floor?â Kal asked as he took the stairs two at a time.
As we hit the top-floor landing, we heard the first scream. Loud and shrill, it came from a female, and she sounded terrified. The hallway was dimly lit with no windows, common with these types of buildings, and the building housed five apartments per floor. The scream focused our attention toward the apartment at the far end of the narrow hallway. The door frame on the apartment was splintered, leaving the door pushed in and off one of its hinges.
I was out of breath and my heart was pounding as Kal and I flanked the frame for a moment and listened for somethingâanythingâthat might give us an edge when we entered. Just then we heard another piercing howl, and we knew trying to formulate a tactical plan might not be in the best interest of the victim, who sounded as if she was getting tortured. Our presence was required insideânow.
We busted through what remained of the door, side by side. What met us was total darkness, inky blackness. Blind as a bat, I couldnât see a damn thing. Entering the building from bright daylight didnât help, but at least the dimness of the hallway shouldâve helped our eyes adjust. It didnât. Later Iâd find out that the apartmentâs windows were covered in heavy blankets, sheets, and curtains that effectively blocked out all light.
The dark was disorienting; we had left our flashlights in the car because we were working what was left of the day tour. We both yelled âPolice!â several times just as another shriek blasted from somewhere in front of us.
We took a few cautious steps forward, trying to identify exactly where the screams were coming from. I was hoping my eyes would get used to the darkness, but that didnât happen.
Something moved, a sound to our right. Kal said, âWhat the fuck?â and the shooting started.
Muzzle blasts lit up the area. Weâd passed through a short foyer adjacent to the living room and were now standing in a hallway that led to the rear of the apartment. There was a black male three feet in front of us, shirtless, gun extended, firing rapidly. Kal went down almost immediately, firing his revolver as he pitched forward. The noise of the gunfight in a confined space was ear-shattering, and I felt as if an ice pick was being shoved into my brain.
I had my gun extended and was firing rounds at the guy who was shooting at us. The room was caught up in a strobe-like miasma of light, screams, and curses.
The gunman tried to get by me, but I grabbed his shoulder and we struggled, grunting and swearing, although our voices sounded muffled given the affect the gunshots had on my hearing. Everything was happening very quickly, yet it felt like slow motion. I was fighting for my life, nearly deaf from the gunshots, and wondering if Iâd been hit.
The shooter was about my height, medium build. A river of adrenaline was pumping through me, and I knew that if I didnât put him down, I was gonna die. I heard the approaching cavalryâthe job now a rapid response âshots fired,â allowing for flashing lights and sirens all the wayâor thought I did. The troops were coming, and I hoped theyâd arrive in time. As we fought, I pressed my gun against the gunmanâs chest, hoping that I still had ammo, and fired.
I heard the welcoming sound of a boom, no empty chamber click. The gunman went down like a dropped anchor. I found out later that heâd been hit a few times, but my last round got him square in the heart. The three of us had fired a total of eighteen rounds in what couldnât have been more than a ten-second gun battle in a space the area of a medium-size closet.
I was too pumped to feel fright or exhaustion. I dropped to the floor and grabbed Kal; he was unconscious. I didnât see much bloodâshit, I still didnât see much of anything. His fatigue jacket had absorbed most of it from several gunshots.
The apartment began filling with cops. The covers on the windows were being ripped down and everyone was talking, yelling. Sunlight streamed through the windows.
I was practically sitting on the dead gunman who was shoulder to shoulder with Kal. Now I could see that there was actually blood everywhere.
âMy partner, heâs hit!â I hollered.
Cops kneeled down. I heard exclamations of âOh, shit!,â âHeâs shot fucking bad!â More cops were pouring into the apartment. I tried to lift Kal and what seemed like a dozen hands joined the effort. Other cops pushed aside responding officers to make a path. We hoisted him in the air and raced down the stairs. There was no time to wait for an ambulance; seconds counted. Kal was going to be transported by radio car.
Someone had the presence of mind to call the dispatcher to have additional units clear the streets that lead to Jacobi Medical Center, which was over a mile away. Jacobi was where you took injured cops; they had excellent trauma teams. Department cars would block traffic at intersections in a race to get Kal immediate care.
We hit the street running, Kal seemingly lifeless in our grasp. The neighborhood denizens packed the street and were eerily quiet. Now was not the time to taunt the police. While they knew they could get away with almost anything right now, we would return and wouldnât be in a good mood.
Kal was placed as gently as possible on a copâs lap in the back of a marked car and the driver gunned it, lights and siren on overload. But there was a problem.
When timeâsecondsâmeant the difference between life and death for Kal (if he wasnât already dead), numerous responding radio cars had blocked the street, and the operators were everywhere but in their cars. I heard the driver of the car Kal was in, whose name has been lost to me by the span of years, say âFuck this!â before he began to ram the radio cars out of the way.
I watched the car disappear down the street, now joined by a phalanx of escorting vehicles. I wished I were leaving with him, but knew I wasnât going anywhere; a platoon of bosses would be on the scene shortly to interview me. As I reentered the building, two uniforms were supporting a woman who looked to be about thirty down the stairs. One cop was calling for an ambulance. She was banged up pretty badly, but otherwise seemed in decent shape. I figured she was the source of the screams weâd heard upstairs, and, when the gunfire started, she mustâve dove for cover in another room in the apartment.
I was being pulled in many directions. Questions came from everywhere. I didnât even know most of the brass who responded to the scene. Things got blurry; I was operating automatically, giving answers, taking accolades, recounting the shooting from various perspectives, and responding to the same questions from different sources over and over. I had lost track of time. I either remained on Fox Street for a few hours, or perhaps fifteen minutes. Pick one.
All I cared about was Kal. I needed to get to the hospital. My mind and heart were racing and I was beyond ramped up.
Continue to read the second part of Street Warrior
A deputy inspector pulled me aside.
âRalph, the mayor wants to talk to you.â
I was taken aback. Was I going to City Hall? That was a world away in a far-off land called Manhattan. The Bronx was one of the five boroughs, but it might as well have been in an alternate universe, such was the disparity in socioeconomic conditions. Why did the mayor want to talk to me at all? The DI saw the confused look on my face.
âHeâs coming to you, Ralph; youâre not going to him. Get in the car.â He directed me to his department auto, and we sped to Jacobi Hospital.
I made a conscious effort to decompress during the ride, but it didnât work. I was hypervigilant, and my blood pressure mustâve been through the roof. Aside from the obvious reason to go to the hospital, perhaps having a few hundred doctors available wasnât a bad idea.
The idea of talking to the mayor didnât thrill me. Iâm a private person and most comfortable around the people I know and respect. The short list was family and cops, the terms being interchangeable. In the ensuing years, I became accustomed to press conferences, award ceremonies, and media types, but I was never at ease. I wanted to do my job and fade away, and then repeat the process the next day. This, unfortunately, was not the reality.
The streets surrounding the hospital were strewn with numerous NYPD vehicles, all illegally parked. I heard the wash of a helicopterâs blades and turned to see a chopper hovering above Pelham Parkway, a six-lane roadway that was apparently being turned into a helipad.
The driver of the car I was in parked on the sidewalk, and I was led past at least a hundred uniforms of varying ranks and jobs: transit cops, housing cops, off-duty cops, cops in uniforms I didnât recognizeâall there to give blood and anything else that was required. When a cop is shot, you circle the wagons, and unconditional support comes from everywhere. The word gets out quickly.
Jacobi Hospital had a media room where doctors and other interested parties give updates on high-profile cases. I was sequestered there, a small area with a miniscule stage, a podium, and a few dozen folding chairs in neat lines.
âThe mayorâs coming in shortly, Ralph,â the DI told me.
How do you respond to that? âWonderful,â I said. âHowâs Kal doing? I want to see him.â
âSoon. Do your thing with Lindsay first.â
Mayor John Lindsay came breezing in with an entourage. I recognized one of his minions as the deputy commissioner of public information (DCPI), the liaison between the press and the NYPD.
The mayor approached me with an extended hand. âHowâre you doing, Ralph? You okay? Anything I can do for you?â He was grim and had a look of concern on his face that seemed genuine; with politicians, you never know whatâs real from whatâs bullshit.
John Lindsay was an imposing figure. He was tall and slim, impeccably dressed, and had an aura that commanded attention. One of the reasons heâd won the mayoralty was a promise to appoint 3,500 new cops to the force, no mean feat for the times. It was the height of the Vietnam War, and police work was as establishment as you could get. It was not a job young men were lining up to apply for. It was the age of the hippie movement and all the anti-government rhetoric that went with it. But heâd pulled it off: the city got its cops, and he got Gracie Mansion.
âIâm okay, sir . . . my partner. I donât know how heâs doing. Iâd like . . .â
The mayor spoke to an aide over his shoulder. âGet an update on the injured officer. Now, please.â People began to move.
We talked for maybe five minutes, and I got the distinct impression I was being sized up. The DCPI was paying rapt attention to everything I said.
âYou performed heroically, Ralph . . . you and Officer Unger. Youâll be recognized for it.â He looked to the DCPI who nodded. âIâll be leaving now, just wanted to come and personally thank you for a job well done. Youâll be apprised of Officer Ungerâs condition shortly. Good luck.â We shook hands and he was gone along with his crew.
A captain quickly took his place. âRalph, listen up. Thereâs going to be a press conference in about five minutes. Youâre the lead. The reporters will want to talk to you . . . ask you questions. You up for it?â
Now I realized the main reason for the Q and A Iâd just had with the mayor. While he was sincere in his concern about my welfare, his DCPI was weighing if I was wrapped tight enough to answer questions from the press without falling apart or saying something that would embarrass the job or, worse, the mayor.
I was in a place of high clarity and said so, still on an extreme adrenaline rush with no signs it was going to abate anytime soon. The captain took my word for it and called for a cop to admit the press, or as he so eloquently put it, âLet the bloodsuckers in.â
With the rush of reporters came cameramen and lights, lots of lights. As the captain nodded toward the podium, a sergeant from the Four-One materialized by my side. He said to the captain, âA minute, Cap? Got an update on Kal.â He didnât wait for permission.
In a conspiratorially soft voice he leaned closer to me. âKalâs in bad shape. Theyâre pumping blood into him by the gallon. He took a bullet to the heart . . . a sac or something.â The sergeant looked confused. âThe doc talked medical shit; all I heard was a round to the heart. Heâs holding his own. Theyâre doing everything that can be done.â
I felt myself beginning to break down, but I shook the feeling off. âOkay, Sarge. Keep me in the loop. Please?â
He said, âYou bet,â and was gone.
I fielded questions for about five minutes. This wasnât my first experience with reporters, but this was my first time as the center of attention with no way to escape. I felt like a nun in a whorehouse: a sea of faces in front of me, all shouting questions, and me staring just above their heads. Trying to make eye contact with each of them wouldâve put me over the edge.
Most questions were relevant to the incident, but no one tried to bait me with questions about the use of deadly force. I thought it wise to give as many yes and no answers as possible, thinking whatever I say can come back to bite me in the ass. A boss on the job once said to me, âYou can never get in any trouble keeping your mouth shut.â Words to live by.
I knew Iâd been justified in my actions, but I didnât entirely trust the media not to edit my responses for ratings. While I was expected to answer questions, I wasnât obligated to elaborate, and I didnât.
One reporter got close to forbidden territory when she asked, âHave you ever shot anyone before, Officer Friedman?â
I had, but I wasnât about to go there. Expecting the question, I had my answer ready: âI hurt someoneâs feelings once.â That shut her up, and a boss moved in to end the interview before the reporter asked for clarification of my wiseass answer. Iâd be all over the local evening news.
I stayed at the hospital for another few hours. Kal wound up getting seventy-two pints of blood, most coming from cop volunteers after the hospitalâs supply of Kalâs blood type ran out. A doctor told me that Kal made medical history by taking that much blood in three hours. He had five other gunshot wounds that, while not as severe, were also life-threatening. Heâd be in the hospital for two months.
The guy Iâd killed was one Charles Williams. He had a rap sheet of assorted priorsâas did many of the inhabitants of the Four-One. Williams lived with his wife and kids directly across Fox Street from where the shooting took place. The woman whom heâd assaulted was his girlfriend. Williams would divide his time between his wife and his girlfriend, unbeknownst to his family. Apparently, the girlfriend said or did something to piss him off because he was in the process of beating her to death when Kal and I intervened. Aggravated because weâd interrupted him, he took out his rage on me and Kalâone of many mistakes heâd made that day.
Kal was recovering from surgery and his future was touch and go. One doctor told me that he believed it was a miracle Kal had survived the initial trauma of the shooting, let alone making it through the surgical procedure. As the day meandered into night, cops from the Four-One, plus a smattering of others from commands throughout the city who knew Kal, hunkered down in the hospital to await any change in his condition. No one was going home; weâd sleep where we sat, whether it be in chairs or stretched out on the cold, hard floor. Cops can sleep anywhere; we were seasoned from the two-day marathons that sometimes made up the arrest and arraignment process.
The frenetic pace of the day caught up with everyone; it was as if the 41st Precinct cops were balloons and someone came along and stuck us with pins. The energy and anger we harbored since the shooting had dissipated into exhaustion and quiet reflection. While cops littered the hallways, most were silent, some nodding out as the evening wore on. The solitude gave me time to think.
Thereâs not a cop or member of the military alive who hasnât thought about what it would be like to take a human life. Itâs something that runs through a copâs mind often. I never dwelled on it; I just felt that one day it might happen. Nothing prepares you for it. You come up with possible scenarios as to how, who, why, but conjecture doesnât come anywhere near reality.
We were in the midst of the Vietnam War, and Iâd spoken to a number of enlisted friends whoâd sweated the day they would experience combat. Would they freeze? Would they prove themselves? Would they be satisfied with the way they handled whatever was thrown at them? Cops are no different; only the battlefields change. Iâve known cops and soldiers who were forever changed the day they killed. Some experience psychological problems; others drink. Flashbacks are common. Marriages are destroyed. The forward momentum of life becomes intolerable. The malady of post-traumatic stress disorder wasnât even recognized in 1972.
I viewed my actions as totally justified, and as such my conscience was clear. I didnât intend on killing Charles Williams. Police officers are trained to stop a threat, to recognize the imminent danger and erase it by no longer having it exist. You keep firing until the threat is stopped. Williams had been shot numerous times before my shot to his heart ended his life. Had he fallen to the floor or just dropped his weapon and given up, heâd have survived.
I donât believe humans are designed to kill each other. Weâre a higher form of animal and should only kill for food. Society dictates we live in harmony, but this isnât always possible. In places like Fort Apache, day-to-day survival depends on a warrior mind-set, not only for the cops but also for the civilians. I hoped that my first experience taking a human life would be my last. Realistically, I knew this to be wishful thinking and Iâd be proved right . . . three more times.
Charles Williams was dead, but he would be a part of my life for a while. My killing of Williams was declared a homicide by the Bronx district attorney. This is procedure whenever a cop kills someone. The question, of course, is whether the homicide was justified. There would be a grand jury hearing, during which I would have to validate my use of deadly force.
Three weeks later, it was deemed just that: justifiable homicide as per New York State law. I had done what I had to do to save my life and the life of my partner.
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PATRICK PICCIARELLI, a Vietnam vet, spent twenty years in the NYPD and is a licensed private investigator and adjunct writing professor at Seton Hill University. The author of Jimmy the Wags, My Life in the NYPD, he regularly contributes to Hardboiled magazine, among others. He lives in Monessen, PA.
RALPH FRIEDMAN served the NYPD from 1970 to 1984, at which time he retired due to being injured in the line of duty. In his short career he amassed more awards and honors than any other detective in the NYPDâs history. Street Warrior: The True Story of the NYPDâs Most Decorated Detective and the Era That Created Him chronicles his career.
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