Retired NYPD sergeant John Cafarella was 'barking orders' before cop was killed by friendly fire

A Nassau County police source said John Cafarella, a Massapequa Park resident, began 'barking orders, even though he had no role or business being there.'



Nassau County prosecutors are investigating whether a retired NYPD sergeant who asserted himself into an active crime scene triggered the friendly-fire death of a veteran Long Island cop.

Retired Sgt. John Cafarella headed to a Massapequa Park home Saturday night after Nassau County and MTA cops responded to calls about knife-wielding Satanist Anthony DiGeronimo.

A Nassau County police source said Cafarella, a Massapequa Park resident, then began "barking orders, even though he had no role or business being there." Long Island cops eventually shot DiGeronimo to death, but Cafarella remained on the dead man's front lawn.

Some 10 minutes later, Geoffrey Breitkopf, an on-duty Nassau County plainclothes cop, arrived with his partner in an unmarked car. He and his partner are members of the Nassau police's special operations bureau. Breitkopf walked up to DiGeronimo's home with his M-4 rifle pointing down, and fellow Nassau cops recognized him and spoke to him, sources said.

But Cafarella spotted Breitkopf and yelled, "Gun! He's got a gun!," sources said. MTA Officer Glen Gentile fired one round at Breitkopf, killing him. "The question is, what was someone who is retired doing in the middle of not just a crime scene, but one where police just shot and killed the suspect?" another source asked. "Everything after that point is just tragedy."

An NYPD source said Cafarella was driving home, saw police first confront DiGeronimo and then chase the suspect into his home. "He stayed as a witness," an NYPD source said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LI police slay guy a meddler


The ex-cop who yelled "gun" before a Long Island police officer was killed in a "friendly fire" shooting is a retired NYPD veteran who has an annoying habit of listening to scanners and racing to locations where police are called, sources said yesterday.

John Cafarella, 58 -- a former Emergency Service Unit sergeant out of East New York -- has spent his three-year retirement nosing around crime scenes and offering unwanted help, the sources said.

"This guy really had no business being at the scene," Nassau cop-union president James Carver said. Nassau County detectives are investigating Cafarella's role in the tragedy that resulted in the death of Geoffrey Breitkopf, a plainclothes cop, who was shot and killed by an MTA cop as he approached a crime scene with a rifle hanging from his shoulder.

Cafarellacould not be reached for comment