Retired cop's weapons removed from home

Nassau police have confiscated a collection of handguns owned by the retired NYPD officer who was at the scene when a plainclothes cop was mistakenly shot and killed, Nassau officials said Friday.

Five handguns were removed on Thursday from the Massapequa Park home of John Cafarella, 58, at the behest of a supervisor in the department's pistol licensing unit, said Det. Lt. Kevin Smith.

The retired Emergency Service Unit sergeant witnessed a confrontation last Saturday in Massapequa Park between Nassau police and a man with a knife, Anthony DiGeronimo, 21, police said.

Officers chased DiGeronimo into his home, and Cafarella stayed outside. The officers then fatally shot DiGeronimo, who police say rushed from a locked bedroom with a raised knife.

Minutes later, Cafarella mistook the plainclothes Nassau officer, who was carrying an assault rifle toward the house, as a threat, according to union officials. They say Cafarella shouted an alarm about a gun, prompting a Metropolitan Transportation Authority officer at the scene to draw his weapon and fire, killing Officer Geoffrey J. Breitkopf, 40.

Nassau police investigators say several officers have reported hearing the shout, although it has not been firmly established who raised the alarm.

Smith said there was no evidence or accusation against Cafarella of any misuse of the guns. The weapons were seized for "safekeeping" pending the outcome of an ongoing investigation into the Breitkopf shooting, he said.

"This guy has been accused of something and there is pressure on him . . . and for his well-being as well as others it was felt prudent to remove the firearms," Smith said. Cafarella has valid permits.

Breitkopf, of the Bureau of Special Operations, was not wearing a police insignia jacket, police said, and it remains unclear if his badge was visible as he walked toward the crime scene.

Cafarella retired in 2008.