'WAR ZONE' IN WEST BRIGHTON

Police Vow A Crackdown On Criminal Activity After The Shooting Of A
Cop During A Marijuana Bust

"We are going to hit the hell out of it," a police source said. "When
anything like that happens, you declare war on the area. And anything
goes."

Detective Victor Villareal, a 10-year veteran of the Police
Department, was shot in the left hand during a 5:23 p.m. struggle
with a man police said was smoking pot inside 1077 Castleton Ave., a
part of the housing complex one police official described as "a
big-time drug building."

Police said the suspect may have also been shot during the fight and
described him as a black man in his early 20s', about 6 feet tall,
with braids in his hair and wearing a red nylon stocking cap, or "do-
rag."

Less than 24 hours after the shooting, COP SHOT faxed information to
the Advance stating a $10,000 cash reward had been posted for
information leading up to the arrest and conviction of the suspect.
Anyone with information can call 1-800 COP SHOT.

Villareal, 36, came across the man as he exited an elevator on the
sixth floor and attempted to arrest him, police said. Villareal and
his partner, Sgt. Michael Sullivan, had entered the building just
after 5 p.m. with the intention of arresting a drug dealer who had
previously sold drugs to an undercover cop.

The shooting suspect was not the same man the officers were after, police said.

Sullivan was in a fourth-floor stairwell when gunshots echoed
throughout the building. The bullet badly damaged Villareal's index
finger and lodged in a nearby door, police said. The injured
detective was able to give police a vague description of the shooter
before he lost consciousness, according to police.

The preliminary description of the suspect was given to police by
someone who had seen a man enter 1077 Castleton Ave. minutes before
the shooting.

Villareal spent the night heavily sedated in St. Vincent's Medical
Center, West Brighton, and was listed in stable condition yesterday
afternoon. Thursday night, doctors were confident that a three-hour
operation had saved the officer's finger. However, it was unclear
yesterday afternoon if it had indeed been saved, police said, and if
so, how much function it will have.

Police believe that once they are able to complete an interview with
Villareal, the wounded detective will be able to provide a complete
description of the shooter. Undercover narcotics officers who
regularly patrol areas like the West Brighton Houses are often able
to recognize suspected drug users and dealers, police said.

"He probably knew the guy," a source said, "at least by face."

Investigators from the Staten Island Narcotics Unit and Warrant Squad
will look into every open case in West Brighton, pounding on the
front door of every person with an open arrest warrant, the source
said. Addresses of nearby buildings will be placed in a computer
database that locates residents with open warrants and a temporary
headquarters may be set up on the corner of Castleton Avenue and
Broadway.

"To show force," the source said, "to show you're not gonna shoot a
cop. It's probably going to be the best place to live for the next
few months if you're a decent person."

The source said an apartment on the fourth floor of 1077 Castleton
Ave. is home to "six or seven" known drug dealers. In nearby 1075
Castleton Ave., suspected drug dealers run into the lobby and up to
the third floor when they see police officers approaching, the source
said.

Police will be checking those and other buildings in the complex,
much like they did the night Housing Unit Police Officer Gerard
Carter was shot in the head by Shatiek Johnson, who was 17 at the
time. Johnson lived in 1077 Castleton Ave.

Following Carter's murder, police hunted the housing complex for
Johnson, who was found 11 hours later barricaded in a closet in a
second-floor apartment of 820 Henderson Ave.