POLICE SOURCE: DEAD MAN HAD DRUG CONNECTION

The Brooklyn print-shop owner shot dead during a struggle with a federal
agent in East Flatbush was identified as a member of a drug organization by
an underling cooperating with investigators, a police source said yesterday.

Egbert Dewgard, 31, seemingly does not fit the profile of the drug suspect.

He owns a Flatbush Avenue print shop passed on to him by his father. He
dotes on his three young children, his outraged family said. And it does
not appear he has a criminal record.

Still, the police source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said
Dewgard was part of a cocaine operation, one member of which had recently
been arrested by the Drug Enforcement Administration and had agreed to
cooperate with investigators.

That led to a Wednesday morning transaction in which that member gave
Dewgard a bag containing three kilos of cocaine, the source said. When DEA
agents tried to arrest Dewgard at Utica Avenue and Farragut Road, he fled
west on Farragut in his black Nissan Maxima, nearly striking a pedestrian
before jumping a curb and running north on New York Avenue with the bag in
his hand, authorities said.

At least one witness backs up that account, but at least two other
witnesses said Dewgard was not carrying a bag.

Three-quarters of the way down the block, agents caught up to Dewgard, and
one fired a fatal shot during a struggle, authorities said. Dewgard, who
authorities said had tried to grab the agent's gun, was pronounced dead on
arrival at Kings County Medical Center.

A bag with cocaine was found a few feet from the shooting, under an
unmarked DEA sedan that had pulled up at the scene, police said.

Some witnesses said the agent clearly did not have to fire his gun and
others said none of the agents at the scene tried to help Dewgard once he
had been shot. One woman added that agents initially appeared to search the
grounds of a nearby housing project as if they were looking for a mystery
gunman who shot Dewgard.

The police said despite the varying witness accounts, all evidence points
to Dewgard being part of a drug organization the DEA has been investigating.

"Was this guy a working guy?" the source asked. "Yeah. But this guy was
pretty high up."

The DEA has refused to identify the agent who shot Dewgard or even basic
information about his career. It also would not discuss the group sources
said it has been investigating.

Dewgard, the source said, was shot in the lower right side. An autopsy is
scheduled for today.