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December 5,
2007
For Immediate Release |
Contact: Albert O'Leary
PBA Communications Director
212-298-9190
or
Joseph Mancini
212-298-9150 |
CALL FOR HOSTAGES TO PROVIDE IMPACT STATEMENTS
FOR PAROLE HEARING
In an effort to keep a cop-killer in prison
for the rest of his life, PBA President Patrick J. Lynch is calling
for the hostages taken when the crimes were committed nearly 35
years ago to come forward and deliver victims’ impact statements
before a special hearing of the state parole board.
When the police union president learned that parole had been approved
for Shuaib A. Raheem – who is serving 25-years-to-life for
murder, kidnapping, robbery and other charges in the Jan. 19, 1973,
killing of Patrolman Stephen Gilroy – he contacted the board
requesting that the officer’s widow and a retired officer
wounded in the incident be given the opportunity to make victims’ impact
statements.
“Especially without a death penalty in this state,
we don’t believe that cop-killers should ever again walk
the streets in freedom,” Lynch said. “And we’re
going to do everything in our power to see that this one remains
behind bars.
“It also should not be forgotten that this man was convicted
of kidnapping as well.” Lynch added. “He put innocent
hostages through a terrifying ordeal, and they should have the
chance to tell the parole board what his release would mean to
them.”
Raheem was one of four avowed Sunni Muslim men who held up a Brooklyn
sporting goods store and took 12 hostages. Ptl. Gilroy was killed
and two other officers wounded in a 47-hour siege in which emergency
service and other officers surrounded the store.
Under parole board regulations, Raheem’s scheduled Jan.
3 release has been delayed pending the hearing at which the impact
statements will be given.
One of the wounded officers, retired Ptl. Frank Carpentier, will
testify at the hearing, describing how he was shot in the leg and
then received death threats from unnamed Black Muslims while he
was in the hospital recovering from his wounds.
Ptl. Gilroy’s widow, Patricia Gilroy, will also testify. “It’s
been almost 35 years since that day and he is still the love of
my life,” she says. “I still miss him.”
Lynch urged surviving hostages to contact PBA attorney Gregory
M. Longworth at 212-964-8038 to indicate their willingness to deliver
the victims’ impact statements.
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