Sources ID Brooklyn cops who allegedly drove off without leaving car to check on dying victim
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-metro-cops-who-drove-off-in-brooklyn-identified-20180702-story.html
Two Brooklyn cops who allegedly left a shooting victim to die when they failed to get out of their car and investigate a 911 call have been identified.
Officers Roberto Anton and Lisa Lavelle, both assigned to the 73rd Precinct in Brownsville, drove off without ever getting out of their cruiser, law enforcement officers said Monday. The cops have been suspended.
Anton and Lavelle answered a 911 call of a man shot on Decatur Ave. in Bushwick on Saturday, but they left the scene after staying in their car for three minutes. Robert Fason, 43, later died from his wounds.
Fason’s brother, Lee Fason, 47, on Monday repeated his call for the NYPD to boot the cops.
“Gross, it’s gross. They are supposed to be the Finest,” he said. “That’s not them being their finest. They never told us about that (cops leaving scene). My reaction? More hurt. I want them to catch these guys who did this. And these officers, they should lose their jobs.”
He added, “If it wasn’t for the Daily News, we would have never known that the police didn’t do their jobs. They never told us anything.”
Fason said he doesn’t understand why people who swore an oath to protect others would respond to a shooting and ignore a call about a victim. The sequence began with gunfire on Saturday night. A woman heard a faint cry for help and she called 911.
Anton and Lavelle arrived and then left. The woman called again, and more cops arrived, this time finding Fason dead in the yard.
“You can’t just look out the window and drive off,” Lee Fason said. “They needed to get out of the car and investigate. They should have talked to the person who called. They were supposed to do the job that they were supposed to do.”
He said his younger brother is one of five siblings. His wife, Alona Fason, and their five children, are devastated, he said.
“He’s been with her since he was 19. They’ve been together for over 20 years,” he said. “How would you feel if the person you spent half your life with is gone?”
A second injured man remains at Kings County Hospital.
“He got shot in the neck. He might be paralyzed,” Lee Fason said. “I want to know what happened.”
Neither Anton nor Lavelle would comment Monday. Stephen Worth, a lawyer for the officers, declined to comment.