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Mourning as City Tries to Understand Village Shooting

Jen Chung

Published Mar 16, 2007

Modified Mar 7, 2008

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Jen Chung

Published Mar 16, 2007

Modified Mar 7, 2008

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The city continued to be be stunned over the murder of a pizzeria employee and two auxiliary police officers by a gunman, who was later killed by police, in Greenwich Village Wednesday night. The police made surveillance footage of the shooting of the auxiliaries public; the graphic video shows shooter David Garvin shooting a point blank range, deliberately crossing the street to kill the officers. The papers are devoting many stories to the victims:

Volunteering their time to work as auxiliary cops, Eugene Marshalik (left) and Nicholas Pekearo (right) are profiled in the NY Times, NY Sun, NY Post, and Daily News. Marshalik, a 19-year-old NYU student, whose family emigrated from Chechnya 13 years ago and was a star on the Stuyvesant debating team, wanted to work in law enforcement as a prosecutor. He also worked weekends as an apartment building doorman to make extra money. Though Marshalik's mom was worried about his volunteer work as an auxiliary cop, he told her that last time an auxiliary was killed was 13 years ago. And Pekearo, 28, grew up in the West Village, worked at Crawford Booksellers on Madison Avenue and had recently completed a novel. A friend told the Sun, "He was absolutely an angel kid, gorgeous." His girlfriend told the Times that Pekearo mainly dealt with getting "drunk people rides home" when on patrol.

Marshalik and Pekearo will be given funerals with inspector's honors.

DeMarco's Pizza barman Alfredo Romero Morales (pictured middle right) is remembered as a "Good Husband & Good Son" in the Daily News. His common-law wife, who recently miscarried, says that she had a premonition about something bad when they spoke to each other on the phone Wednesday. She also tells the NY Times she would like some help to bring his body back to Puebla for burial (it's not clear where one would be able to donate).

While a motive still has not been confirmed by the police, they believe that 42-year-old David R. Garvin may have been angry at Morales because Garvin's friend had been fired from DeMarco's. An ex-Marine who worked in journalism (he was fired from the Wall Street Journal as a graphics coordinator in 2005) and was an aspiring filmmaker, some say that he was recently very paranoid. His brother tells the NY Times, “He had no real violent inclinations. He wasn’t a person to cross. If you crossed him, he was an action person. Obviously, we know that now.”

Garvin (pictured bottom right) had moved to St. Louis in 2005, but moved back to the city last year, living with a friend, an EMT, in the Bronx. The police found a gun, 100 rounds of ammunition, and disguises in the apartment. Garvin had also worked at the Racoon Lodge on Warren Street, but had quit. Another employee said that he "couldn't control himself with drinking while working" while the Raccoon Lodge manager said, "You could say he didn't have charisma." Garvin's filmmaking website shows various films he worked on that never got distributed.

Garvin had recently moved to the Village to live with a girlfriend, who had introduced him to DeMarco's. He was a regular customer, but the DeMarco's cook Anthony Ruffino said that he recently changed his routine, sitting at the bar and not at a table. The police say he had been thrown out of the restaurant at least twice.

Now there is a call for the NYPD to outfit auxiliary police officers with bullet proof vests. And the 17-year-old daughter of Milton Clarke, the last auxiliary cop to die in the line of duty back in 1993, tells the Daily News, "It's really dumb to work as an auxiliary. You are dressed exactly like a cop, but you have no weapon." Clarke was given a funeral with police honors, but his family did not receive benefits that families of police officers killed on the job receive.

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Jen Chung

Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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