BLOOMBERG BACKS G-MAN IN SLAYING OF DRUG SUSPECT

Mayor Bloomberg yesterday backed the DEA agent who shot a drug suspect in
Brooklyn on Tuesday, saying he "acted appropriately" when he pulled the
trigger - but that didn't mollify Egbert Dewgard's heartbroken kin, who
called the agent a "murderer."

Dewgard's family disagreed, and has already met with the Rev. Al Sharpton,
who is pledging to "stand by the family" in a reprise of his 1998 support
of the family of Amadou Diallo.

"It was plain murder," said Dewgard's sister Diane, who gathered with other
grieving family members at the dead man's East Flatbush home yesterday.
"Whatever they did went wrong. Now they are making up lies to cover it up."

The family's outrage was fueled by accounts of witnesses, who said Dewgard
was unarmed and shot in the back by a DEA agent at New York and Foster
avenues in Brooklyn.

According to the DEA, Dewgard was holding three kilos of cocaine and was
shot after fleeing in his car and struggling with the agent.

The DEA and the Brooklyn DA's office are probing the case. Yesterday, DEA
head Asa Hutchinson met with Bloomberg. Afterward, Bloomberg said the NYPD,
which was also part of the drug operation, will "cooperate" in the
investigation "but there's no evidence that any procedures were incorrectly
followed."