The veteran explosives expert for the ATF who was shot dead during a robbery at a Long Island drugstore yesterday was picking up cancer medicine for his retired NYPD dad when he was killed, his heartbroken father said today.
“He was in the house. I said I’m going down to get a prescription. He said well I’m going down to Charlie’s so I’ll take it,” said James J. Capano as he stood outside the pharmacy where John Capano died.
“I should have gone.”
Officials said the off-duty Capano, 51, a father of two, was trying to foil an armed robbery at Charlie’s Family Pharmacy in Seaford when his life was violently cut short in a shooting that also left the drug-addled thief dead.
James Capano said his son -- who’d just returned from a training mission in Irag and Afghanistan -- never backed away from trouble.
“He never walked away from anything. He always got involved. I always got involved. You know, you can’t walk away. If you’re on the job, you’re a policeman and someone’s in trouble, you’ve got to help them. You don’t stop to think of what’s going to happen to you. You go in and do what you have to do,” the elderly Capano said.
“He was good.”
John’s long time pal from high school, Greg Rosati, 52, noted the irony of a man used to dealing in deadly explosives getting killed on his day off not far from his own home.
“He was in Afghanistan, in Iraq diffusing bombs. Then he comes home, gets his father’s prescription and gets killed. It’s like a movie,” said Rosati, adding: “He was a man’s man. A hero.”
Nassau County police said the tragic chain of events that led to Capano’s death began when the 40-year-old suspect entered the pharmacy carrying a pistol in his waistband at 1:54 p.m. and announced a robbery.
As the crook left the store with his pockets stuffed with cash and the painkiller OxyContin, he encountered three men “involved with law enforcement,” cops said.
Sources told The Post that two women witnessed the robbery in progress, and ran next door to the Seaford Deli, where they found a retired Nassau police lieutenant and an off-duty NYPD cop. The two officers then rushed next door.
Capano — a 23-year ATF vet who recently returned from overseas training the military about explosives — followed the suspect, ready to pounce, sources said. His wife and at least one of his kids were waiting in a car outside, a source said.
All three lawmen men descended on the would-be thief. During the ensuing melee, someone’s gun went off, and Capano was shot.
Sources said it was unclear whose weapon fired at the Long Island dad, but investigators are probing to see if it was the retired lieutenant’s gun.
Sources said the perpetrator then stood and pointed his gun, and was then shot dead. It was not clear who shot him, but the NYPD officer did discharge his gun, sources said.
Witnesses said they heard two loud pops followed by multiple shots, and then saw a man dead on the sidewalk.
“I heard shots, I heard five shots. I heard boom, boom, boom, and then a couple minutes later, the whole street is blocked off,” said Jin Jin Chen, 34.
At Capano’s home, his wife and their two children, a daughter, 16, a high school sophomore and a son, John, 18, were trying to cope, neighbors said.
“Their mother is distraught and the son he is not doing too good. He is crying,” said a neighbor, who described Capano as a “wonderful man” who plowed everyone’s driveways.
A close friend of Capano, Phil Heely, said they were both members of the Biltmore Beach Club. “We would meet at the beach club and watch a beautiful sunset,” he said.
Heely said he wasn’t surprised that Capano tried to stop a robbery.
“That’s just like him. He was already injured in the line of duty, and even with his injuries, he put his best foot forward,” he said, but did not elaborate about the injuries
These were weapons trained law enforcement officers
ReplyDeletewith one of them who will probably not have the luxury, I'm afraid, of a guilt free night's sleep for a long time to come. Some have said, "we should all be carrying" in the wake of this tragedy, to which I ask: where do I get a vest?