12 THE QUEENS COURIER • MARCH 11, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
police beat COMPILED BY JACOB KAYE AND ROBERT POZARYCKI
105th Precinct
Queens Village, Cambria Heights,
Laurelton, Rosedale, Springfi eld
Gardens, Bellerose, Glen Oaks,
New Hyde Park and Floral Park
NYPD releases body camera
footage of fatal Springfi eld
Gardens shooting
Th e NYPD released body camera footage
on March 5 of a Springfi eld Gardens
police-involved shooting that left two offi -
cers injured and a 41-year-old dead aft er
he opened fi re on the offi cers making an
alleged domestic violence house visit in
November 2020.
Rondell Goppy, a 41-year-old CUNY
peace offi cer accused of domestic violence,
was killed in the gunfi re aft er he stormed
his own home with a handgun, fi ring 11
shots at the offi cers, injuring them both.
Th e incident began around 12:45
p.m., on Nov. 24, when NYPD offi cers
Christopher Wells and Joseph Murphy
escorted a woman to her home, located
around 179th Street and 146th Road, aft er
she had earlier fi led a police report at the
105th Precinct accusing Goppy of domestic
violence, according to the police.
Th e woman and two offi cers entered the
home and spoke about making plans for
the woman to leave and stay elsewhere until
the NYPD could arrest Goppy, who legally
owned two guns, video shows.
As the woman and two offi cers spoke in
the living room, Goppy burst in through
the front door and, without saying a word,
began to fi re.
Wells and Murphy fi red back, getting
off 24 shots, hitting Goppy, who was later
pronounced dead at the scene.
Th e woman was not injured in the
shootout.
Wells was shot once in his right thigh
and Murphy was shot twice — once in
each hand. Both offi cers were treated at
Jamaica Medical Center and released two
days later on Th anksgiving to much fanfare.
“Here you have offi cers who are doing
the Lord’s work. Th ey protect survivors of
domestic violence,” Mayor Bill de Blasio
said aft er the gunfi ght. “Th ey go into the
volatile diffi cult situations you can possibly
imagine. Some of the most diffi cult
work these police offi cers do. Th ey do it to
protect people who have been victims of
abuse. Here we have a situation when one
woman was in danger and these offi cers
went to protect her, only to fi nd themselves
in harm’s way. Th ank God they will
both pull through.”
Prior to the shooting, the NYPD had
made four domestic violence visits to the
home, cops said.
Watch the body camera footage on
QNS.com. Viewier discretion is strongly
advised.
102nd Precinct
Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill
East, Richmond Hill, Woodhaven
and Ozone Park
Two-alarm fi re rips
through Woodhaven
building, injures three
A twoalarm
fire in
a Woodhaven
home left three
people injured
early in the
morning of
We d n e s d a y,
March 3.
According to
the FDNY, fi refi
ghters responded
to a fi re at
88-15 85th St.
at 5:05 a.m. on
March 3.
Upon their
arrival, fi refi ghters
found that the
blaze had broken
out on the second fl oor of the building.
Twenty-fi ve units containing 106 fi refi
ghters responded to the scene. Th e fi re
was brought under control by 6:29 a.m.
A fi reman was seriously injured during
the response but is currently listed in stable
condition. Two civilians suff ered minor
injuries as a result.
Th e cause of the fi re is under investigation.
104th Precinct
Ridgewood, Glendale, Middle
Village and Maspeth
NYC Sheriff ’s Offi ce shuts
down illegal rave at
radioactive Superfund
site in Ridgewood
Potential exposure to COVID-19
apparently wasn’t risky enough for this
illegal Ridgewood party.
Th e NYC Sheriff ’s Offi ce was at it
again early in the morning of Saturday,
March 6, breaking up an illegal rave
during the pandemic at a warehouse on
the Brooklyn/Queens border — located
within a radioactive Superfund site.
Th e operation took place at about
1:40 a.m. on March 6 at 1133 Irving
Ave. in Ridgewood, which is part of the
3/4-acre EPA-designated Wolff -Alport
Superfund zone. Cleanup eff orts have
been ongoing at the location to clean up
decades-old radioactive contamination
from within the property.
According to the sheriff ’s offi ce, deputies
staked out the location aft er receiving
information about a potential rave
there. Th ey spotted a large number of
patrons entering the warehouse, which
had its security gate halfway rolled
down.
Loud music was also clearly audible
to the deputies, who then moved in
and broke up the party, law enforcement
sources said.
Upon entering the warehouse, deputies
spotted at least 142 people dancing
and drinking alcohol without wearing
face masks, according to the sheriff ’s
offi ce. Authorities said the location did
not have a valid liquor license to serve
alcohol, nor did it have a valid certifi cate
of occupancy.
Th e sheriff ’s offi ce cleared all patrons
without incident.
Two security guards — Bakari
Brathwaite, 34, of Brooklyn and Walter
Louis Jr., 34, of Kingston, New York
— and a DJ, Jonathan Alvarez-Conde,
38, of South Ozone Park, received desk
appearance tickets for charges including
violating the health code and the mayor’s
and governor’s executive orders related
to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Th e Irving Avenue site used to house
the Wolff -Alport Chemical Company,
which operated between 1920 and 1954.
During World War II and in the years
that followed, it extracted rare earth elements
in such a way that it produced a
byproduct sludge that contained thorium,
a radioactive element.
Before the ill eff ects of radioactivity
were realized, the workers at the company
were said to have dumped the sludge
into the nearby sewers — causing the
radioactive element to spread throughout
the immediate area of the site. Th is
practice was ordered stopped by the
Atomic Energy Commission in 1947.
More than a half-century later, testing
in the basement of a nearby school,
I.S. 384 in Bushwick, led to the detection
of radon, an odorless, carcinogenic gas.
Th e tests, however, revealed that
the radon levels were lower than levels
deemed to be a signifi cant threat to
short-term public health.
Th at helped lead to the determination
that the area near the former Wolff -
Alport site needed an environmental
cleanup.
In 2013, the EPA approved a nearly
$40 million cleanup plan for the Wolff -
Alport property, which involved the
relocation of businesses and demolition
of buildings.
JOHN PHILLIP BYLES
12/18/1948-3/09/2021
Your Children,
Nick & Lisa
/WWW.QNS.COM
/QNS.com
