KIN DISMISS DEAD MAN'S RECORD AS ERRORS OF YOUTH

The devastated family of an unarmed man killed by undercover cops was
outraged yesterday at his depiction by the mayor and cops as a criminal with
a long rap sheet.

The two wildly divergent portraits of Patrick Dorismond, 26, emerged as his
close-knit Haitian kin and loyal friends faced off with officials eager to
avoid any comparison with the cop killing in February 1999 of unarmed
African immigrant Amadou Diallo.

"Police killed my son, my only son. Why do the police have to kill black
men?" said Dorismond's distraught mother, Marie.

"He didn't deserve to die," said fiancee Karen Sturkey, 22, with whom
Dorismond had a 1-year-old daughter, Destiny. "He just went to work and came
home."

Sturkey, who lived with Dorismond on East 92nd Street in Brooklyn, said her
fiance worked hard to provide for his youngest daughter and another
daughter, 5-year-old Infiniti, whom he had with former girlfriend Dwana
Sobers.

He worked for the 34th Street Partnership as a security officer and also
picked up work as a popular disc jockey known as Avalanche, who organized
parties in a heavily Haitian section of Flatbush.

The officer who fatally shot Dorismond in the chest, Detective Anthony
Vasquez, and two other undercover cops who confronted Dorismond on Eighth
Avenue and 37th Street in Midtown were Hispanic.

A lawyer for Vasquez, Philip Karasyk, said the shooting was accidental,
sparked by Dorismond "lunging" for Vasquez's gun after Dorismond punched one
of the undercover cops.

But friends of Dorismond doubt it, saying the security officer was
hardworking and dreamed of one day becoming a cop. They said past
transgressions were nothing more serious than the foolishness of youth.

"He's not the type of guy who would throw the first punch," said Junior
Celestin, a security guard at a store on Eighth Avenue who knew Dorismond
for two years.

The NYPD responded to the criticism by releasing Dorismond's past history of
arrests:

*Court records showed Dorismond was arrested in October 1989 and appeared in
Kings County Family Court, but the record is officially sealed.

*He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was given a conditional
discharge for an Aug. 11, 1993 assault. In the incident, Dorismond punched a
friend to whom he'd given $15 to buy marijuana, but who had only returned
with $5 worth of the drug.

*He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct again, getting a conditional
discharge along with community service, for a Jan. 11, 1996 roadway
confrontation with two men who claimed Dorismond came at them with a gun and
threatened them. No gun was ever found.

*He was arrested for possession of a drug April 9, 1996 in a buy-and-bust
operation in Brooklyn in which he allegedly told an undercover cop where to
buy marijuana. The case was adjourned in contemplation of dismissal, which
means after six months and no further trouble, the record is wiped clean.

"He didn't commit a crime [on Thursday]," said upstairs neighbor Angela
Jones, 39. "Why mention his rap sheet? He was just a very quiet guy, a very
nice man."