B'KLYN DRUG-BUST TRAGEDY

August 5, 2001 -- The end of Charmene Pickering's life began with a
quick visit to her mom.

The 27-year-old stopped at her mom's two-story Brooklyn house on her
way to go shopping for her baby boy.

Within 30 minutes, she had become the innocent victim of a drug bust
gone horribly wrong.

Pickering - who had just started a new job as a clerk for the city
Sanitation Department - died 10 days ago after being shot in the neck
by a state trooper seconds after leaving the house with one of her
mother's "friends."

Little did Pickering know that Carlos Alfonso Rodas, the "friend" who
offered to drive her to a Flatbush shoe store, was a suspected
Colombian heroin dealer and the target of a yearlong investigation by
the state police and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

She also didn't know, according to relatives, that her mother, Cheryl
"Ma" Pickering, 53, and father, John Alston, were allegedly involved
with Rodas in a lucrative heroin-distribution ring.

The bullet that killed Pickering was accidentally fired by senior
investigator Samuel Mercado when he tussled with Rodas after stopping
his car at about 3 p.m. on July 26, cops said.

The bullet grazed Rodas' shoulder before striking Pickering, who was
sitting in the front passenger seat.

State police investigators say the shooting was accidental, but
Pickering's family and a witness told The Post they believe her death
was the result of overaggressive policing.

Charles Howard, 49, who was standing nearby, said he heard one
officer shout "Get out of the car" twice before the gun discharged.

"He only said it twice, and then the gun went off," he told The Post.

"I can't accept how this can happen," said Pickering's grandmother,
Mary Pickering, 69. "She had her whole life in front of her - it
breaks my heart."

An aunt, who declined to be named, said the family has hired a lawyer
and plans to take legal action.

Colleagues described Mercado, a 14-year state police veteran, as a
fine officer. He was put on administrative duty pending the outcome
of an investigation by the Brooklyn district attorney's office.

Mary Pickering raised her granddaughter in her apartment in
Brooklyn's Ebbets Field houses - a 10-minute drive from her daughter
Cheryl's home on East 22nd Street, near Brooklyn College.

She said Cheryl "had drug problems for a long time - she wasn't able"
to raise her. Now, grandmother Mary Pickering finds herself left to
raise her granddaughter's son, 21-month-old Yarvion.

Charmene's parents and Rodas have been charged in federal court in
Albany with supplying a Schenectady drug dealer with more than 1,000
grams of heroin over the past year.