Parole for man who killed cop in 1973 draws anger
Shuaib Abdur Raheem, 23, alias Earl Robinson, is booked at the 90th Precinct in Brooklyn in 1973. Credit: Daily News
Police and union officials responded with outrage Friday after they learned state officials granted parole to a man convicted of killing a police officer during one of New York City's longest hostage sieges.
Shuaaib Raheem, 60, is scheduled to be released by July 8 from the Eastern Correctional Facility in Napanoch after serving more than 35 years of his 25-years-to-life sentence for the January 1973 killing of Officer Stephen Gilroy during a robbery in Brooklyn, according to state parole officials.
Gilroy, 29, of Woodside, was shot in the head as he peered from behind an elevated subway column outside a gun store where robbers had taken hostages.
"I was a sergeant on patrol at the time, and none who was in the department then will ever forget it," said an angry NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly. "Parole should never be an option for Shuaaib Raheem or anyone who murders a police officer."
At a news conference Friday, Patrolmen's Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch said an eyewitness recalled that as Gilroy was shot, Raheem exclaimed, "We killed a cop. We can kill anyone else we want now."
"Some evil cannot be changed," Lynch said in calling for the public to contact the parole board.
Lynch said the union didn't learn until Friday that the board stuck to an earlier 2-1 decision to release Raheem, who was convicted in 1974 of murder, kidnapping and other crimes, records show. Raheem and three others had identified themselves as Sunni Muslims who reportedly wanted weapons to defend themselves against police.
After a similar outcry in 2007 when Raheem was first granted parole, the agency allowed Gilroy's family and others to file victim statements, a process that held Raheem's release in abeyance. But after a hearing late Thursday, the board stuck to its original decision to release him.
"I don't understand this decision at all," Gilroy's widow, Patricia, said in a statement released through the PBA. "What the hell were they thinking? My family and Steve's family and the families of the hostages and all the police officers involved are left to wonder what exactly justice is."
Two other officers were wounded in the nearly 47-hour siege at John & Al's Sports, 927 Broadway in Brooklyn.
Higher snow amounts expected north of LIE A winter storm is pummeling Long Island as arctic air settles in across the region. NewsdayTV meteorologist Geoff Bansen has the forecast.
Higher snow amounts expected north of LIE A winter storm is pummeling Long Island as arctic air settles in across the region. NewsdayTV meteorologist Geoff Bansen has the forecast.
