Retired officer killed during altercation inside pizza shop

By WCBS Staff

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    NEW YORK (WCBS) — A retired NYPD officer was killed in a double shooting in Brooklyn on Monday night while reportedly trying to help a friend.

Sources told CBS2’s Jessica Layton the retired officer was shot during a confrontation at a pizza shop in Kensington. He was rushed to and area hospital, where he died.

The Police Benevolent Association identified the victim as Thomas Marrinan.

The deadly incident started with a fight inside the pizza shop and then spilled outside and continued down a block. Distraught neighbors later learned the retired officer was killed right around the corner from where he lives.

Cellphone video shows a desperate attempt to save Marrinan, who moments earlier was being held in the arms of his wife as she begged him not to die.

“He fall down on the floor and his wife came running. She was hugging him, ‘Tom, Tom, Tom,’” Sam Saied said.

Sam Saied and his brother, Alex, who own Magic Deli on the corner in Kensington, said they heard a gunshot that left their friend with a gunshot wound to the chest.

“He always offer help to anybody,” Sam said.

“He would sacrifice himself to other people. That’s what he just did,” Alex added.

Sources told Layton the 57-year-old friendly face in his neighborhood was asked by a friend, a retired New York City correction officer, to meet him at the pizza shop on East Third Street and Church Avenue to confront a man who had been causing trouble inside.

There was a struggle for the retired correction officer’s gun, and the suspect was shot in the arm. That same bullet then hit Marrinan in the chest.

“At one point, the 57-year-old male and another male, who is 53 years old, came to the aid of the 86-year-old. The two males who are in their 50s confronted the 33-year-old and a physical fight ensured,” NYPD Deputy Chief Joseph Gulotta said.

“The guy who shot him, he’s a trouble maker. He’s really bad,” friend Regina Uddin said.

Uddin knows the 33-year-old suspect and the victim’s entire family.

“He never had any problems with anybody. He’s a really good person and I’m very upset,” Uddin said. “I was crying. I was crying. I just hope he survives.”

Sadly, that was not the case. Sources told Layton the suspect was drunk inside the pizzeria when he started that fight. He was taken to a hospital to be treated for a gunshot wound to the arm. No charges were immediately filed.

Police were talking to the retired correction officer to find out more about the sequence of events. He was not hurt.

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