NYPD Cop Suspended Over Mysterious Death Of His Brother

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Transcript

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Hi, I'm retired NYPD detective Vic Ferrari, and welcome to NYPD through the Looking Glass Podcast, where you get unique insight into the New York City Police Department. Before we get started, I encourage you to check out my Amazon author page where you'll find my series of behind-the-scenes NYPD books. They're a $10 paperback or $2.99 e-book download, including my latest and greatest, NYPD behind the blue wall of silence. Had a little extra time this week, so I figured I'd record another episode. It's going to be tough to follow up on Edgar Ortiz, my my last guest, and he has a great book out, so you guys should check it out. Surviving the Streets, 23 Years from the Brooklyn Trenches to Counterterrorism. Good read. So last week I was supposed to interview Billy Hayes from Midnight Express Fame. He's the guy that spent close to five years in a Turkish prison and he escaped. Talked to him last week. Unfortunately, technology didn't work out. I couldn't, we tried recording an episode, but it just didn't take. So I'm going to reach out to him tomorrow. We're going to try it again tomorrow and fingers crossed. So hopefully I'll have a good episode with him. Otherwise, you know, I always roll the dice to try to find a really good guest for the show. So for this episode, I've just, I got a bunch of stories from true crime stories, and then I got stories that kind of link to them. So give it a shot. A rookie NYPD cop has been suspended after his brother. A community activist spoke out against gun violence and brush shoulders with former vice president Kamala Harris and Al Sharpton was shot to death in the family's Harlem home under mysterious circumstances. Shortly after 1 30 a.m. on July 18th, NYPD officers responded to 911 calls reporting a shooting in an apartment on Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem. When officers entered the apartment, they found Mr. Diallo, who had a gunshot wound to the right eye, and his brother, an off-duty NYPD officer. Mr. Diallo was pronounced dead at the scene. Officers removed a firearm at the scene. Members of the NYPD's Force Investigation Division were looking into the possibility that the fatal shooting was accidental, according to police sources. No one as of yet has been charged in Mr. Diallo's death. The National Action Network is heartbroken by the passing of our beloved member and longtime youth leader and a dedicated organiz. So they say he's been suspended. They might have gotten it wrong. He might have been placed on modified assignment, but let's just say for the argument's sake, he's been placed on suspension. Whenever someone dies under violent or mysterious circumstances, you know, it's not like an 80-year-old woman that died in her sleep peacefully and the family was there. You got a young man in the prime of his life, he's got a gunshot wound to his eye. Okay. So it's one of two things. It could be three things. It could be he was playing around with the gun, didn't know it was loaded, didn't know how to use it. I don't know why anyone would point a gun in their face and pull the trigger, but it's happened. It's highly unlikely. That's one scenario. The other scenario is the brother or someone else in the house was either cleaning it or screwing around with it, didn't realize it was loaded, and it went off. The third possibility is, and this is the worst, there was an argument. Words were exchanged over God knows what, and someone shot this guy in the face. It's one of three things. The first thing they're gonna do, or they should have done, is whoever's in that house, you're gonna take them down to the station house and you're gonna do a gun residue test to see, you're gonna take their clothes, what they're wearing, and you're gonna test their hands to see if there's gunpowder residue on the hands. That's gonna kind of be the tail of the tape. They're gonna interview this guy at length. This guy is high, the victim was highly politically connected, and not all shootings are handled the same. I mean, for the most part, they are, but every now and then, and my brother told me a story once, and I don't know how accurate it is, but according to my brother, there was a cop in his precinct, deeply religious guy. He was actually the minister or pastor at his church. And on a Sunday after church services, he was with his family and they were leaving the church or going out to lunch or whatever, but someone tried robbing him and the guy pulled off his off-duty and killed a guy. He says the case never went to a grand jury. I said, Well, how's that possible? According to my brother, it never went to a grand jury, which is standard protocol on any of the five boroughs in New York, if a cop is involved, or anybody for that matter, is involved in something where there's a homicide and you know you're claiming it's justifiable circumstance, justifiable homicide, and that's oftentimes with police officers when they have to take a life in the line of duty. According to my brother, the guy never went to a grand jury. I don't know how accurate that is. I can't see it, but my brother swore up and down in a stack of Bibles, so who knows? So anyway, they're gonna they're gonna do a thorough investigation with this. They said he's suspended, so there might be more to the story. They might not. Here's another thing with an off-duty cop. An off-duty NYPD officer opened fire on several suspected catalytic converter thieves in Upper Manhattan. The incident took place about 5 43 a.m. on June 30th, near the corner of West 148th Street, Broadway, in Hamilton Heights. Sources familiar with the incident reported that a 31-year-old off-duty cop was inside her car, ready to drive to work when a neighbor approached her. The neighbor told the officer that several people were attempting to steal a catalytic converter from a car parked nearby. The officer, who sources say works out of the 40th precinct in the Bronx, drove to the scene and began recording the three suspects in the act. Police said when the group noticed her recording, they approached her and attempted to box in her vehicle. Sources said that at least two members of the group appeared to reach into their waistband for a weapon, prompting the officer to fire her own weapon. She reportedly fired one shot, which sent the suspects running like cockroaches, and they were last seen heading into a dark-colored BMW that fled the scene. While the three individuals fled, police's sources say they believe there may have been at least six people working in Tamden to remove the car part. It's not currently it's it's currently unclear if one of the men was struck by gunfire. The female officer, thank God, was not shot. No arrests have been made, the investigation is ongoing. In my opinion, I think this female cop did everything right. Your neighbor comes up to you and says, hey, you're a cop. These guys are stealing catalytic converters. She probably called 911. She went over there in her car. She thought she was low-key. She was going to videotape them. That's pretty much what they tell us. You know, they tell us not to take police action, call 911, just be a witness. These guys noticed her. It's, you know, first thing in the morning, there's probably not a lot of people in the street. They think they're going to be cute and scare the crap out of her or take her phone. They surround her, and one of the guys thinks he's going to be a badass and reaches into his pants. And like we always say, play stupid games, you win stupid prizes. She got nervous, thought that they were going to try to shoot her or pull a carjack or she fired a shot. I think it's good. The problem is these DA's offices aren't holding these people accountable that are stealing catalytic converters. And it's the same thing that went on in the uh early 2000s with airbags. You know, they thieves discover a market and they're going to exploit it. Why do people steal catalytic converters? Well, inside a catalytic catalytic converter is a device, it's hooked up to your exhaust system. Exhaust coming from the engine is, in theory, is supposed to be filtered out by the catalytic converter. Inside this little metal tin box is platinum, palladium, and rhodium, whatever that is, and they're precious metals, apparently. They're they're worth a lot of money. So what happens to these things? Well, thieves take these catalytic converters to scrap metal processors who pay them money for it. And if they run around during the night and steal 10 or 20 of them, they can make a couple of hundred bucks or a thousand bucks. I I don't know the going price. But if the police department and the DA's office or the attorney general's office wanted to get serious about this, these catalytic converters are going to scrap metal processors. They're not going anywhere else. So you set up a sting, hint hint, and you start going in there and having these things and talking about how you stole them and you lock these guys up or you put them under surveillance. Listen, if you put these places under surveillance and these guys are out stealing all night, guess who's gonna show up first thing in the morning with a duffel bag or a crate? And you intercept them before they get to the scrap metal processor. So if there's members of the auto crime division listening or any of the DA's offices, that's how you're gonna put a dent in it. Because if you're watching the scrap metal processor places and you're breaking their balls and you're holding them accountable, the thieves won't have a market to get rid of these things. The former head psychologist of the NYPD claims he was forced out of his job in retaliation for blowing the whistle on the department's mental health practices, including allegedly being ordered to turn confidential therapy records of police officers into disciplinary plot files. Dr. James Graziano resigned as the director of the department's health and wellness section in April after he was accused of collecting tens of thousands of dollars in overtime while moonlighting as a psychotherapist, and the city is now seeking reimbursement. Police source familiar with the investigation says or believes Graziano stole hundreds of hours of overtime while seeing private clients. But the certified psychologist said the NYPD made up these accusations and launched numerous baseless complaints against him as revenge, they'll do that, for allocating the quality of mental health care for police officers, according to a lawsuit. So he's following a lawsuit. Three sides of his story. You know, the NYPD, that this is why cops won't talk to members of the health service division, like after a shooting or being involved in something traumatic, because anything you tell these people can and will be used against you. And it's unfortunate because you got cops out there with PTSD and mental health problems, sometimes it's suicidal. Sometimes they just need somebody to talk to. The problem is it'll be used against you. So, and I remember this, I mean, after 9-11, probably, I don't know, six or nine months after 9-11 when the FEMA money, yeah, it was in the spring after 9-11. So the FEMA money's flying around, right? And they start sending us, like my office was 20 guys. They sent 10 of us at a time someplace in Manhattan, and it was a bunch of volunteers. And these people's hearts were in the right place. They really were. And they sat us down and they, you know, there was a spread of food and coffee. They're very nice to us, and they wanted to talk to us in like a group-like setting, not one-on-one, about what we saw down there and how it affected us and if we had any concerns. And, you know, you're not going to get a especially my office. There was no young cops in my office. The youngest guy was probably in his early 30s. You're not going to get a bunch of cops to talk about their emotions after you're inviting them down to like a group therapy session. And I remember there would, there was one guy in my office, and he's a good guy. He made a comment about he would right around the time of 9-11, he was supposed to get married, and how, you know, he he wanted right after that, like he wanted to be married, and you know, he wanted to start a family like instantly. And, you know, it's he was the one guy that spoke and he got his balls broken for it, unfortunately. But, you know, it's uh the truth is somewhere in the middle. The NYPD's health service division is awful. The treatment we get is awful. Basically, they're there as a stopgap to prevent cops who are trying to scam the system or take too much time off. And that does happen. But on the other side of the coin, you got injured NYPD members mentally and physically, and they don't care. So the truth will come out somewhere with this thing. A putrid odor wafting from a Bronx apartment led authorities to two decomposing corpses so rotten that the police couldn't immediately identify their sexes, according to sources. The highly decomposed bodies were found inside a five-story Carpenter Avenue near 228th Street apartment in Wakefield after a caller reported a stomach-turning smell oozing from the hallways around 8 30 p.m., according to the NYPD. One of the bodies was found under a couch, the other splayed on the floor. The two bodies were so decomposed that their ages and genders remained unclear on Monday, but there were no signs of physical trauma to their body, according to sources. Looks like an overdose, probably fentanyl. If I had to take a guess, there's two of them in the apartment. They didn't say anything about forced entry, so they probably had a kick down. The door was probably fairly obvious with two people decomposing in there in the summer. Probably didn't have air conditioning. I feel bad for the cops there. Probably fentanyl. Fentanyl's been around forever. I first heard about it when I worked in the narcotics division, had the 2-3 and the 314, but especially Spanish Harlem, when fentanyl was out there, you'd have a bunch of overdoses. I remember one time, like over a weekend, there was something like 20 overdoses, and like half of them died. And you would think the junkies, if they heard that there was something out there croaking them, that they would stay away from the heroin, had the reverse effect. They they wanted that high if they could make it. And I remember they had the NYPD at community affairs with vans driving around with loudspeakers mounted at the top, like the Blues brothers at the end of the movie. Like, don't take fentanyl. Fentanyl is out in the neighborhood, it will stop your heart, but didn't stop the junkies from wanting it. So this looks like an overdose. Obviously, they're gonna the medical examiner's office. We'll get to the bottom of it. The NYPD precinct boss, who allegedly told an underling he wanted to make biracial babies as he allegedly tried to rape her, was fired, police confirmed Tuesday. Inspector Jerry Sh Jeremy Schubin, 45 years old, will likely be able to collect his pension despite the termination order so long as he's not convicted of a felony of attempted rape charge he now faces in the Bronx. Bronx prosecutors last week unveiled an indictment against Schuben after a woman under his command dramatically accused him of sexually assaulting her in the 4-6 precinct station house. The woman who first detailed the accusation in a bombshell lawsuit alleged Schubin violently groped her during the January 2025 encounter, telling her, I don't know whether to kiss or choke you. He forced her onto a couch where he kissed her and creepily said, I want to make biracial babies with you according to the lawsuit. Churbin is white, or Schuben, his accuser is black. The run-in ended after the woman kicked Schubin in the groin, according to the complaint. The accusations led to an internal affairs probe. Schuben is pled not guilty. Schuben was hired by the NYPD in 2022 to giving him more than 20 years of service. It makes him eligible for a full pension. Yeah, they changed the rules with this. In the old days, if you got fired before your 20th anniversary, that was it. Thank you for playing Nintendo. Thanks for coming in. That's it. They changed the law with that. But apparently, according to this newspaper article, if he's convicted of a felony, they can take his pension away from him. I don't know. Was there witnesses? Is there evidence? I really don't have an answer to it if it's true. It's amazing to me that a guy with that much time on the job, who's rose to the ranks, would be capable of that, but anything is possible. This story makes me laugh. The hate-filled hubby of a Canadian woman who was arrested for allegedly slapping a Trump supporting teen on the Jersey Shore over the 4th of July weekend, is trying to dismiss it as a nothing burger while blaming conservatives online for landing her in ICE custody. Caitlin Tracy, 33 years old and old enough to know better, was taken into custody by ICE after the July 3rd confrontation, is now confined at the Delaney Immigration Center in Newark. Her husband, Matthew Garoni, who's got a different last name than his wife, who was who has wished death on President Trump and even to his family to get cancer, claims they are victims of his wife's alleged July 3rd attack on a 16-year-old girl wearing patriotic colored Magnus sweatpants at the Point Pleasant Beach boardwalk. Garoni has a history of deranged anti-Trump, anti-Is TikTok posts, and he prays for the So here's the other side of the story. According to the Point Pleasant Beach police, Tracy films herself approaching the teenager who was wearing patriotic colored sweatpants and wound up slapping the victim across her face and body before fleeing the scene. However, Garoni claims his wife who's who was shoved and hit and insisted she was not the one recording and never fled from the police. She was held at the Ocean County jail until Ice removed her. Okay, so you got these two balloons. You know, obviously they're entitled to their opinion politically. I I don't care about that. You know, that's what makes this country great. But you got two people in their 30s, and allegedly they see teenagers on the boardwalk wearing MAGA or Trump memorabilia. And according to this affidavit, the woman walks up, gives them crap, and slaps the kid and takes off. So it's a small beach town. There's probably cops all over the place. There's no way to flee. The cops grab her and they arrest her probably for simple assaults or harassment or whatever. They book her into jail. Let me see your driver's license. Oh, I don't have a driver's license. What form of ID do you do have? Here's my Canadian citizenship papers. Okay. Well, it's standard protocol now. How long have you been in the country? Blah, blah. They claim they're married, but they got different last names, which I get. That happens all the time. But she's not an inner, she's not a United States citizen. And she's probably overstayed her welcome and she's put her hands on somebody. They're going to deport her. And the husband, I get it. He's married to this woman. They're not my cup of tea. He's having a shit fit over it. But again, you do something stupid and then you're in the wrong, you're going to pay for it. So more than likely, he's she's going to get deported to Canada. And he's either going to have to make a decision and move up there with her, or because she's never going to get back in here again after this, more than likely. So sand all the way around, but you put your hands on somebody, bad things happen. A former NYPD cop who pocketed more than $100,000 in state disability benefits while running a training business and posting weightlifting videos online. Ray Phillips, 40 years old of Huntington, Long Island, put in for disability in 2018, claiming he hurt his arm, weightlifting, it couldn't work, but kept posting workout picks and videos on Facebook and Instagram, and even took place in weightlifting competitions, according to Attorney General Letitia James. The former NYPD cop, according to state officials, claimed in 2018 that he hurt his left arm and had to go undergo surgery. The Social Security Administration approved his claim in 2021, which allowed him to pocket more than $100,000 in health benefits. According to Letitia James, he shamelessly collected benefits meant for disabled New Yorkers while boasting his weightlifting achievements on social media. I get a kick out of Letitia James because she had a mortgage fraud thing pop up right after she went after Trump for that. And she put some stuff on a mortgage application for a house down south. I forget if it was Virginia or Maryland, listed her father, I think, as the husband. She claimed it as a primary residence. She's got relatives living up there. So she pretty much did the same thing she accused the president of, but in Virginia, they won't indict her, whatever. But here she is, holier than now, you know, getting involved with all this nonsense. But, you know, listen, if this cop did it, he's gonna have to pay for it. It's not the first time. And I've told these stories on this podcast before about I've seen NYPD guys and women, you know, say that they were injured and sick and hurt, and they go down, they either get caught, they're filming them or videotaping them, and if this is true, this guy made it easy for them posting social media vo videos, or they follow you around and they surveil you. Or in the one case of a guy I knew, big weightlifting guy, he's claiming he's half a cripple. He shows up at the at his board hearing and the guy's all buffed up. They they laughed at him and they denied his claim. So, you know what? Either this guy did it or he didn't do it, so the truth will come out. This story is just so bizarre. The NYPD, the NYPD may soon allow new recruits as old as 48 years old to join the force. As the city council pushed a bill through on Thursday, the proposed legislation will now go to Zaron the moron's desk, raising the minimum age for civil service exam people from 35 to 43 years old. It also allows veterans to sign up until the age of 48. And the NYPD has taken important steps to strengthen recruitment by reducing college credit requirements, expanding the number of polybelliers. Here's the thing: this is not good to hire people that old. And I'm gonna tell you why. First of all, it's better to have young people. Police work is a young man's game, especially patrol. And I know this firsthand. I did 20 years with the NYPD, my last 10 as a detective, right? I retired, I moved down to Florida, I got my certification, I worked for a small police department, and I was miserable. Because at 40, what was I, 42, 43 years old? Now I'm in a radio car. I have no patience for people anymore, right? I don't have the stamina. I was drinking like three, four cups of coffee a night to stay up. Your reflexes aren't the same, your mindset is different. When you're 20 something years old, you have no fear. Now you're in your 40s, you got a house, you got grown kids, you own things. You're gonna think twice about taking police action. Trust me on that. And God only know, and here's another thing: the older you are, the more baggage you have. It's just it's just a part of life, you know? Good, bad, and the ugly. You're gonna get someone 48 years old. They might have a whole laundry list of crap they might not catch, and it and it's not gonna be good. You're better off getting a young guy or a young woman under the age of 30 and teaching them right. You get somebody in their 30s and 40s, they're not gonna listen. So good luck with that, NYPD. You made your bed. The Mundami administration has quietly made a permanent controversial pilot program that pays junkies for cash for turn turning in used needles. A move critical. So there so the city has got this thing where participants can return up to 50. This sounds like the bottles and cans. Participants can return up to 50 used syringes a day, collecting $10 by dropping them off at designated sites. What could go wrong? I get it. There's probably a problem like in the 80s where there were needles and crack vials all over the place. Fine. Have the sanitation department address it. Junkies running around picking up things, they're gonna get $10, and what are they gonna do? Ooh, I can get a couple of vials of crack or I can get another deck of heroin. And here's another thing no one's thinking about. Kids, you get children, especially boys. I can make $10. You know, these needles are filled with hepatitis, HIV, all sorts of crap. Do you really want children that that want to make a couple of bucks running around picking these things up? I get what you I get people, you know, while they're on the ground, have the Department of Sanitation just be more vigilant. They're gonna be in the same shooting galleries and same parks to have sanitation go through there a couple of times so we can clean this crap up. You know, it's just it's encouraging bad behavior, is what it is. So again, I want to thank everyone for tuning in, especially my listeners in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, Monica, McKenna, Mokina, Illinois, Portland, Maine, Glen Burney, Maryland, which I used to pass all the time going up and down Iron, and Toronto, Canada. If you worked in law enforcement or had an interesting criminal background, please drop me a note on Twitter or Instagram at VicFerrari50. If you're watching on YouTube, please hit the like and subscribe buttons. And if you're really feeling strong, hit the hype button on your mobile app. If you enjoy the content, check out my Amazon author page where you find my series of behind the scenes NYPD books. Just type in my name Vic, Ferrari Like the Car, and you can preview all my NYPD books for free. Thanks again, everyone, and I'll see you next week.