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Man killed with own gun during struggle with NYPD

BY STEVE RITEA | steve.ritea@newsday.com

May 5, 2008

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An unidentified man was killed with a bullet from his own gun early yesterday during a struggle with police in an elevator machine room atop a commercial midtown Manhattan building, police said.

Assistant Chief Michael Collins of the New York Police Department said they believe the man to be a 51-year-old from Brooklyn whose background includes a string of at least 15 burglary and stolen property arrests dating to 1982, according to a preliminary investigation.

An employee at 30 E. 40th St. reported the altercation to police around 3:40 a.m. after finding evidence of a break-in at the 13-story building, Collins said. On surveillance video, the employee had spotted a man who resembled a suspect wanted in earlier burglaries at the building, he said.

Police responded and followed the man from the penthouse floor, which contains a dentist's office and hair salon, to the roof, where he crawled through a window and into the elevator machine room, Collins said.

A police sergeant and a lieutenant followed him into the dark room, where, according to a police source, the sergeant saw what appeared to be a gun in the man's hand and began striking him with a police radio to loosen the weapon from his grasp.

The gun went off, shooting the man in the head, but it was unclear whether he had shot himself intentionally or whether the gun - inside a nylon sock - went off accidentally in the struggle, the source said.

Collins said the man was wearing two pairs of pants and on his right hand two pairs of latex gloves. They also found a nylon bag with a hacksaw and a rope and another bag with three Dell laptops near the scene.

Police are still investigating the incident, Collins said.

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