New York Chief of Detectives (12 page)

“It looks like he was killed by a massive blow to the head. We still do not know where this happened. We attempted to locate Curtis Gee and found him in his room with gunshot wounds to the head. We picked up a glimpse of a car from a security surveillance camera, and the only car that entered that lot was a 1990 jacked up Chevrolet Caprice. One identical to it was found on Campus Drive over near Queens College with a ‘crispy critter’ inside. The car had been torched, and the victim was also shot in the head. Ballistics has determined that they are related. Tonight we’re going to try to help stop these murders, and most of all, generate some leads as to who killed Tony. He was a stand-up guy and a very dedicated detective. He was a personal friend of mine, as well as a friend to many others, including the OCCB guys here with us.”

“Tonight, we’re going to let the good people in Queens know that we’re trying to make their community safer. We want the bastard that did this to know that we’ll never give up and that we are his worst nightmare. Thank you so much for being here. Please be safe. Captain Flannery will give you the assignments.”

Bryan Flannery walked to the center of the assembly area.

“We’ll be organized into seven teams tonight. Each team has a specific purpose, and we ask that we stay on task as much as possible, recognizing that anyone could have to take police action and make a collar. We have Team One that is tasked with street enforcement. If you see a criminal violation, such as narcotics, alcohol violations or public disorder, make an arrest and bring them to the armory. We’ll process them here and the task force will debrief them about these murders, using the charges as leverage. Team Two will do traffic enforcement, stop every car we see with a citable violation, and then debrief them about these murders. You should use a reasonable amount of discretion, but charge when appropriate. Team Three will do foot patrol. We have three thousand flyers with the 1-800-COP-SHOT. I want them all given out to businesses and anyone on the street. Team Four will be the intelligence piece. Most of you guys will be in plain clothes primarily from the OCCB. I want you to visit every bar and café and try to get information. If you see a violation, make the collar and bring ‘em back here. If you get any flack from the bar owners, lock ‘em up too if you have a charge. The task force guys will debrief and help in any way. Team Five will be the event response team. If it gets heavy, they’ll respond as a team to quell it. They’ll be staged at several locations, and we have enough cops to staff three event response teams. Team Six will be prisoner control and processing. They’ll stage here at the armory, process all arrestees, and load them in the prisoner transport vans for booking. This will help to keep as many cops as possible on the street. Team Seven will be the Rodriguez Task Force, and they’ll float around as needed. I will call your name and give the assignments. Do you have anything else before we move on, Chief?”

“Yes, I have just one thing. We’re not here to harass anyone. We’re here to enforce the laws and put a stop to these murders. We’ll treat these people with respect, but they need to understand that the NYPD is here to stay. Most of all, be safe and watch each other’s backs.”

Bryan Flannery proceeded to assign all two hundred and forty-five officers and twenty-eight supervisors. Most of the officers rode three to a car, and they deployed from one end of the Queens Borough to the other.

“We’ve started to shake the briar patch, Bryan.”

“Yep, Chief, and we’ll see how elusive Mr. Bunny Rabbit will be.”

“I hope the rabbit is tired and ready to jump in the hat.”

The radios started to chatter.

“Team One Lieutenant to Command Post, K.”

“Go ahead Lou, K.”

“We are detaining three for auto burglary two blocks from the armory on 168th Street, send a wagon, K.”

“Team Six, van one, can you respond? K”

“Ten-four command post, we’ll be there in five minutes, K.”

“Team Four Lieutenant to Command Post, K.”

“Team Four Lieutenant go ahead, K.”

“We are at Castle Street and 164th Street at the El Mariachi. We have two in custody for public disorder. We’ll be transporting them to the CP, K.”

“Ten-Four.”

Arrests were popping up all over the Queens Borough. Within two hours the teams had arrested over thirty people and the armory was buzzing with activity. The task force detectives were busy debriefing suspects.

“Are you aware that a New York City Detective was murdered in Queens last weekend?”

“Do you have any information as to where Detective Tony Rodriguez was killed?”

“Have you heard anything on the street about this?”

“Did you know Curtis Gee?”

“Do you recognize this picture of him?”

“Have you ever seen this person?”

“Have you heard anything about a car fire on Campus Drive near Queens College?”

Suspect after suspect was asked these same questions with little information in return. Mike Logan looked at Mary McDonald and unloaded. “Do you ever feel like we’re pissing against the ocean with this?”

“I do until we talk to someone who knows something, but I think it’s worth the try. The perp who did this will know that we haven’t forgotten him.”

“I hope so.” 

Pat and Dickie were watching the perps being brought into the armory.

“There seems to be a lot of crime in Queens tonight.” Pat commented.

“That’s because there are a lot of cops to see the crimes tonight.”

“So true. It’s a shame we can’t catch bad guys every night like this.” 

Dickie looked at Pat, thinking about the past.

“You know, when I was in a RMP, we caught a lot of perps and made some great collars. It’s just that the radio calls never stopped. You’d see the guy slinging dope when you were on the way to a fight or a domestic. You couldn’t stop and arrest him, because someone might get killed on the other job, if you didn’t respond. If you made arrests all night, your buddies ended up answering all your jobs. They’d stay hot at you, and the sergeant would get pissed off at you for you not carrying your load. The perps won almost every time, because they knew we were running radio jobs.”

“When I was still on probation, Dickie, I was making so many arrests that my squad members took me in an alley and threatened to kick my ass if I didn’t stop locking so many people up.” 

“If your reputation is true, then it didn’t stop you.”

“I tried to be more selective, but people just kept committing felonies in front of me.”

“You gotta’ love it, Chief.”

“No doubt, let’s go for a ride.”

Dickie and Pat headed out as more cars were pulling into the armory with prisoners. No matter where they went, there were NYPD units on car stops, vehicle searches and arrests. Around the bars and businesses there were uniformed cops and detectives everywhere.

“It looks like our boys took me seriously.”

“When you ask people to do something like this, Chief, they know how important it is.”

“Nothing we do is more important than catching a cop killer.”     

At about 2300, Pats cell phone buzzed.

“Pat O’Connor.”

“Chief, it’s Bryan. You may want to come back to the armory. We may have something.”

“Okay, we’re on the way.”

“Let’s head for the armory, Dickie.” 

Dickie Davis turned into the armory a little fast and the low front end of the Chrysler went metal to concrete, making an awful noise. Heads jerked in the parking lot, but everyone relaxed when they saw it was the Chief of D’s. Bryan walked over and met Pat.

“Thanks, Chief, I appreciate you getting here so quickly.  This may be nothing, but it has my curiosity aroused. Some SOD guys picked up this kid for possession of marijuana. It was no big deal until Rosa Sanchez and Alverez starting trying to debrief him. He freaked out, started saying he’d be killed, that we had no idea who was involved in this, and that it didn’t matter if we were cops. Sanchez did a great job trying to coax it out of him, but he was scared to death and crying and hyperventilating. Then he bolted away from them and tried to get away, until he was nailed by one of the K-9’s standing by, and he’s now missing some blood where the dog ripped into the muscles in his leg.”

“Any other good news?”

“The kid’s lawyered up and says he’s going to sue us. Sanchez and Alverez are going to the hospital with him, in case he changes his mind or makes any unsolicited statements.”

“That’s a good idea. I also want to call Richard Chambers and see if we can get a DA out of bed and cut a deal. Who is this guy?”

“His name is Marcus Johnson and he’s a black kid about twenty-three.”

“Okay. Bryan, I’ll call the DA.”

The prisoners continued to pour into the armory. Pat made an observation.

“It’s amazing what we can do when we have sufficient manpower. The criminals don’t stand a chance.”

Bryan smiled.

“No one ever said that this COMPSTAT thing was wrong. You just figure out where the crime is happening and plot it on a map. Then you just put the cops on the dots.” 

“Don’t forget, you also put the commander’s family jewels on the chopping block, because a crime spree can cost a boss his job in a COMPSTAT meeting.”

“Tell me about it. I’m glad that the precinct commanders feed the lions often enough that Manhattan North Homicide is off the radar screen most of the time.”

“You better knock on wood, Bryan, because if we don’t solve this case, we’ll both be in NYPD Siberia somewhere.”

“Wow, you could be the curator of the police museum.”

“Probably not a bad gig, but I’ll pass. One of my best detectives spent three years there because he got into an argument with a previous commissioner about Teddy Roosevelt’s police badge. He corrected the commissioner and found himself transferred to the museum detail for an education.”

“Well, boss, we can’t let that happen to us.”

“You’re right about that!”

CHAPTER 25

Friday, April 9-Day 8

107th Precinct Patrol Area

Borough of Queens, New York

0200 Hours

Pat
and Dickie rode around in Queens for several more hours. At 0200 hours, the arrests had quieted down, and many of the officers were busy booking prisoners. Pat yawned and realized just how tired he was feeling.

“Dickie, either the cops have run out of criminals, or the criminals have run out of cops.”

“It has calmed down for sure, Boss.” 

Pat picked up his cell phone and called Bryan Flannery.

“Flannery.”

“O’Connor here.”

“What do you think, Chief?”

“I think we should let everyone finish what they’re working on now, and then, let’s shut it down.”

“I’ll do it, Chief!”

“By the way, have you heard anything else from our kid who tried to run?”

“He’s still at the hospital with a non-life-threatening bite. They’re waiting on a public defender because the kid says he’s indigent.”

“Okay, if anything changes, let me know immediately.”

Pat put the cell phone back in his pocket.

“I guess we can head home, Dickie.”

“I’ll head toward Manhattan.” 

Dickie pulled the Chrysler up in front of Pat’s high-rise building. Pat had one foot on the curb when the police city-wide channel beeped with an alert: “All units standby, special attention Mid-Town Precincts, authority of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, a vehicle just entered the city through the Lincoln Tunnel bearing New York Registration Ida Sam John-239. Tags are displayed on a mid-90’s red Ford Escort. These tags are wanted in connection with a homicide of a MOF (Member of the Force). If located, approach with caution. The suspect may be armed and dangerous. Notify FBI immediately.”

“It worked!” Pat shouted as he got back in the Chrysler.

He told Dickie about his deal with Mike Wilson and the license plate readers.

“Let’s roll.”

About two minutes later, a Mid-Town patrol unit operated by Mitch Rogers and Frankie Greene came on the radio. “South Eddie Central, we are behind the suspect vehicle at this time reference the last alert.”

“All units, RMP South Eddie is behind the suspect vehicle at this time. South Eddie, what is your location, K?”

“We’re on 37th Street, but we haven’t lit him up yet.”

“Ten-four South Eddie is on 37th Street.  Any unit that can assist South Eddie, K?”

“South Eddie, we have multiple units behind us. We are going to attempt the stop in the 800 block.”  

“South Eddie, ten-four.”

“South Eddie Central, he’s not stopping. He is taking off; we’re in pursuit.”

Pat could hear the siren blaring in the background on the radio as the RMP screeched through intersection after intersection. As expected, the big Crown Vic had no problem staying with the little Escort.