New York Post
By LARRY CELONA larry.celona@nypost.com
October 4, 2007
Ballistics tests show the gun that killed a Brooklyn cop in her Long Island home belongs to her NYPD fiancé, a source told The Post last night. Police Academy instructor Alexis Chaparro, 27, has been questioned but not charged... Chaparro's gun, which had been recently fired, was recovered at the house, the source said. Ballistics tests showed it was the murder weapon... Meanwhile, Garcia's grieving family was so angry at Chaparro that he was barred from attending her wake and funeral, another source said...
FUNERAL FOR NYPD OFFICER FOUND SLAIN IN BAY SHORE HOME
New York Daily News
TAMER EL-GHOBASHY tel-ghobashy@nydailynews.com
Friday, October 5th 2007
...Garcia's eldest daughter, Ashley, 11, hugged her weeping baby sister, Joslin, 7, as they were surrounded by hundreds of cops in dress blues who came to pay a final tribute to the woman known as the "Precinct Princess"...
"Sonia was my CMO - my chief morale officer," Inspector James O'Connel, Garcia's former commanding officer at the 77th Precinct, told the mourners who filled the pews of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in New Lots, Brooklyn.
"She started her day kissing every member and saying, 'Good morning, I love you,'" he said as some in the church laughed through their tears. "She was the Precinct Princess"...
TEARS FOR A BRAVE 'COP'S COP'
New York Post
By Matt Nestel and
Andy Geller andy.geller@nypost.com
October 5, 2007
..."All we can say is we want justice for Sonia," said Debra Salcedo, 33, a childhood friend. "I want her to die an honorable death. We don't want her death swept under the rug"...
NYPD OFFICER LAID TO REST IN CYPRESS HILLS
Newsday, NY
Laura Rivera laura.rivera@newsday.com
October 5, 2007
Among so many mourners who wept openly for police officer Sonia Garcia at her burial in Cypress Hills Thursday, her two daughters, their eyes dry, drew close at their mother's coffin. Ashley, 11, who was wearing her mother's police hat, turned to her sister Joselin, hugged her, and placed the hat on her head... a four-deep line of police officers stood at attention Thursday morning as the hearse carrying Garcia's coffin approached the church.... two city police helicopters whirred overhead... Garcia's mother said through tears: "She was a good mother, daughter and partner who never did wrong to anybody. "She was my friend, my sister, my life, my everything. How will I live without her?"...
(Last blog entry is here, and video is here)
Lawmaker Calls for State Probe into Cop's Death
ReplyDelete1010 Wins, NY - 3 hours ago
07 October 2007 8:42AM
A Brooklyn politician is calling for a state police investigation into the death of a city police officer in her Long Island home.
State Senator Eric Adams says it appears that the probe into the death of Sonia Garcia is complex. He says investigators shouldn't wait until the case goes cold.
Adams' area includes Garcia's precinct in the Crown Heights neighborhood.
Suffolk police spokesman Tim Motz says the investigation into Garcia's death is active, ongoing and progressing.
The 28-year-old officer was found killed by a gunshot wound to her chest last Saturday. Police say her fiance, NYPD officer Alex Chaparro, called 911 to report the shooting. He's since been questioned but has not been charged in her death.
http://www.1010wins.com/Lawmaker-Calls-for-State-Probe-into-Cop-s-Death/1059451
State Police aid sought in NYPD cop's murder probe
ReplyDeleteBY ANDREW STRICKLER | andrew.strickler@newsday.com
October 7, 2007
Accusing Suffolk police and prosecutors of hitting a "law enforcement brick wall" in the investigation of the murder of a New York City police officer in Bay Shore last week, a Brooklyn state senator called yesterday for State Police to assist.
"This appears to be a complex investigation ... and we shouldn't wait until we are so far away from the case that it's cold," said state Sen. Eric Adams (D-Brooklyn), whose area includes Officer Sonia Garcia's Crown Heights precinct, the 77th, where she worked in a school protection unit.
Garcia, 28, a four-year veteran of the force and the mother of two young daughters, was killed by a single gunshot to the chest last Saturday in the home she shared with her fiance, NYPD Officer Alexis Chaparro, 27.
Chaparro, who called 911 after the shooting, was the only other person in the house at the time of the shooting, police said, and Suffolk homicide detectives quickly ruled out suicide. Chaparro, who could not be reached, was questioned for several hours but released without being charged. He was placed on suspension early last week from his job teaching tactics at the NYPD police academy pending the conclusion of the investigation.
In a statement, Suffolk police spokesman Tim Motz said, "A thorough investigation is active, ongoing and progressing," adding Police Commissioner Richard Dormer has expressed "his complete confidence" in the Suffolk police Homicide Squad.
In a letter sent to Gov. Eliot Spitzer on Friday, Adams asked the governor to use his executive authority to order state police detectives to assist the Suffolk district attorney's office. Adams said state police could assist local authorities who "might not have the technological resources of the bigger departments."
Adams said he spoke with family members at the funeral, and that they "made it clear they wanted justice."
Referring to Chaparro, he said, "You're dealing with a trained member of the Police Department that is possibly involved, someone with knowledge of evidence, someone who knows how to destroy evidence ... or alter evidence."
Suffolk prosecutors could not be reached.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/suffolk/ny-nycop075405232oct07,0,2263954.story