EX-NEW YORK OFFICER HELD IN SHOOTING SPREE

Crime: Dismissed from the Force over a Drug Offense, He Allegedly Fired at
People from His Apartment, Wounding a Preschool Teacher.

NEW YORK -- A former police officer shooting from his apartment window
wounded a preschool teacher taking children to a playground during a
three-hour spree in a sprawling housing complex.

Arresting officers found Brian Berrigan, 33, sitting at a table inside
his fourth-floor apartment at Stuyvesant Town, Police Commissioner Ray
Kelly said.

He was "crying like a baby" when police entered his apartment to take
him into custody, said one officer at the scene. Police found other
weapons inside the apartment.

During the attack, bullets crashed through windows and into parked
cars, grazing the shoulder of the 22-year-old teacher, whose name was
not released. There was no indication that the shooter knew the teacher.

None of the children from the Manhattan Kids Club preschool was
injured, and the teacher was released from Bellevue Hospital after
treatment, Kelly said.

At least 20 shots were fired, including one at a police
car.

"He was firing at windows. He fired at people. He fired at the police
vehicle," Kelly said.

Police cordoned off sections of the sprawling development as officers
in helmets and bulletproof vests searched for the shooter. Berrigan
was taken to a police station for questioning. An officer for two
years, he was dismissed in 1997 after a routine drug test detected
cocaine in his system, Kelly said.

Charges against the former officer were pending.