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Shooting That Left Two Dead Was Over Flashlights
By
Garth Johnston
Published May 18, 2011
Modified May 18, 2011
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DCPI
By
Garth Johnston
Published May 18, 2011
Modified May 18, 2011
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Marina Tartakovskaya (left) was wounded and Semyon Levin (right) was killed in a shootout in their home on Staten Island.
The grisly shooting in Staten Island yesterday that left two dead, one at the hands of the police, appears to have been related to a dispute over a flashlight patent, and not a push-in robbery gone wrong. And if the assailant's gun hadn't jammed it could have had a much higher body count.
48-year-old Ilya Iglanov entered the home of Semyon Levin, 52, and Marina Tartakovskaya, 45, yesterday around 12:30 p.m. to discuss Iglanov's theory that the couple, who run a military-grade flashlight company, had cheated him out of his life savings. In the couple's kitchen he pulled out a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol and shot Tartakovskya, a mother of five grown children, in the stomach before shooting Levin in the head.
In the scuffle Tartakovskya and a maid crawled out of the building and found a neighbor, Joseph Shwereb, 68, walking his dog. But before Shwereb could call for help, Iglanov was outside thrusting his gun at Shwereb's head. He even reportedly pulled the trigger, but his gun jammed, at which point the gunman ran back into the house (some reports have Iglanov shooting Levin when he reentered the home after his gun jammed on Shwereb).
When police arrived at the scene they found the gunman "conscious and in a squatting position in the closet" in the home's basement, according to the police. When they ordred him to raise his hands, Iglanov instead "raised his left arm with a gun in his hand and pointed it at the first ESU officer in front of him." He then "refused repeated commands to drop the gun."
Finally a 14-year-veteran of the force with no history of shooting fired seven shots at Iglanov, killing him on the spot.
Levin and Tartakovskaya were both taken to Staten island University Hospital where Levin was declared dead. His wife, however, is in stable condition with her family by her side.
Neighbors, as neighbors are wont to do, were surprised by yesterday's scene. "They were always nice and friendly," George Maneatas, who lives a few doors down, told the Advance. "This is the craziest thing."
Tagged
Ilya Iglanov
military-grade flashlights
nypd
shooting
staten island
Garth Johnston
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