BROOKLYN: SHOOTING VICTIM DIES

Charmene Pickering, a 27-year-old woman shot by a New York State trooper
during a drug raid in Brooklyn on Thursday, died Sunday morning at Kings
County Hospital Center, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office
said yesterday. She said the death was not reported to her office until
yesterday as doctors considered transferring Ms. Pickering's organs. A
spokeswoman for the state police said that the shooting was apparently
accidental but that the trooper, Senior Investigator Samuel Mercado, whose
gun was fired, had been placed on administrative duty pending an
investigation by the Brooklyn district attorney's office.