Early yesterday, a childhood friend sitting at the bedside of Transit Police Officer Desmond Robinson finally broke the news to him that the man who had shot him down in the subway on Monday was a fellow officer. Officer Robinson's first words, the friend said, were, "Is he all right?"
Later, at 4 A.M., waking again from the strong pain medication that causes him to doze periodically, he asked to see the officer, Peter Del-Debbio, to reassure him that he was all right, that there were no hard feelings.
And in the meeting that followed, both men cried and hugged -- between the tangle of tubes attached to Officer Robinson and the cast on Officer Del-Debbio's arm -- while Officer Del-Debbio repeated, "I'm sorry," over and over.
"Pete, with a cast on his arm in a sling, bent down and kissed him on the forehead, held his hand and cried," said Detective Bill Nolan, one of three fellow officers who grew up with Officer Robinson on Staten Island and has been with him at Bellevue Hospital Center almost constantly since the shooting.
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Police Commissioner William J. Bratton were quick to seize on the meeting between the two officers as a moment of reconciliation. But Brian O'Dwyer, a lawyer for the Robinson family, suggested that Officer Robinson's feelings about the shooting may change when he learns the details.
"We are hopeful Officer Robinson will soon be well enough to make his own decision as to what sort of legal steps he wishes to take," Officer Robinson's half-brother, Phillip Hysmith, said in a statement released through Mr. O'Dwyer.
Until yesterday, Officer Robinson had been unable to speak, and he is still largely unaware of the details of the shooting and controversy surrounding it, the lawyer said.
Officer Del-Debbio, a New York City police officer, who is white, shot Officer Robinson, a transit officer, who is black, because he mistook him for a criminal on a crowded subway platform where Officer Robinson, working undercover, had been chasing a teen-ager who had been carrying a sawed-off shotgun.
The shooting has raised questions about whether white officers are sufficiently trained to recognize that a black man brandishing a gun might be a plain clothes police officer.
Officer Robinson's partner, as well as a commuter who witnessed the shooting on the E train platform at 53d Street and Lexington Avenue at 7:10 P.M. Monday, have told investigators that Officer Del-Debbio shot Officer Robinson at least twice in the back, and kept firing as he fell or had fallen face down.
But Officer Robinson's friends who were interviewed at the hospital, all of whom are white, insisted that he had dismissed suggestions that the shooting had anything to do with race.
"I discussed that with Skipper at 4 o'clock this morning and he just laughed about it," said Officer Ray Garcia of the city police, using Officer Robinson's childhood nickname. "He said this isn't about black and white. It's about two brother officers."
Officer Garcia, who has been Officer Robinson's friend for 17 years, said he had slept only six hours since the shooting. Yesterday, he left to get some sleep after hearing the good news that the doctors expect Officer Robinson to make a full recovery.
"The fact that he's going to walk out of here is a miracle," said Pamela S. Brier, Bellevue's executive director. She said that he was shot four times, including wounds to his heart and liver. Ms. Brier said that doctors were planning to try to get him walking yesterday.
A Reassuring Curse
Doctors have generally refused to discuss details of Officer Robinson's condition, which was upgraded yesterday to stable from critical. But the Mayor, police officials and the officer's friends say he is mending more quickly than anyone predicted. He is able to move, sit up and even joke with visitors, they said.
Officer Garcia said, "Last night when I first heard him curse, that's when I knew that he was O.K."
When Mr. Giuliani came to call, Officer Robinson asked if the two could have their picture taken later, at City Hall, when he was looking better, and wondered if he would get a medal, the Mayor said.
But the Mayor canceled plans for a second visit last night when doctors said Officer Robinson needed to rest.
Until yesterday, Detective Nolan and Officer Garcia, who like Officer Del-Debbio both work for the city police department, as well as a third friend, David Agata, a police officer in Coral Gables, Fla., who flew in after hearing of the shooting, said that Officer Robinson had been communicating with them by squeezing their hands to indicate "yes" or "no."
'This Guy Was Hurting, Too'
On Wednesday, the three first visited Officer Del-Debbio, whom they described as completely distraught.
"We figured this guy was hurting too, and he was overcome, because very few people have been visiting him," said Detective Nolan.
When Officer Robinson began to speak in the early hours yesterday, his friends said his first words were, "Did they get the bad guys?" They told him yes, and then explained Officer Del-Debbio's involvement, said Officer Garcia. Officer Robinson immediately sent him down to the other officer's hospital room to tell him not to worry.
When Officer Robinson woke again several hours later, he asked that a second message be sent to Officer Del-Debbio: to visit him.
Officer Del-Debbio cried hard all the way to Officer Robinson's room, Officer Garcia said. Detective Nolan said Officer Del-Debbio apologized without "explanations, or trying to come up with excuses."
"But Desmond said it was O.K.," Detective Nolan said. "He said it wasn't his fault, that the two guys responsible were the ones on the platform."
'I Knew It Was Him'
Officer Del-Debbio was released from the hospital yesterday, and went home to his family in Franklin Square, Long Island. His wife, Denise, stood in the driveway in front of their gray-shingled house and told how she had waited for him to return home on the subway Monday night, then waited for the word that he had been injured after hearing on the radio that police officers had been shot.
"I tried to put it out of my mind, thinking if I did that it wouldn't be him," she said. "I tried, but I knew it was him."
Mrs. Del-Debbio attended the hospital reunion of the two officers. Afterward, she said her husband was in much better spirits, and described her respect for Officer Robinson, who, she said, told her husband, "You did what you had to do."
Officer Robinson, who still has one bullet inside him, has been helped by his mental as well as his physical strength, his friends said yesterday, adding that he practices the martial arts and works out religiously.
'I'm Happy to Be Home'
They said that doctors had told them that the biggest threat was to his lungs. Officer Robinson, who has asthma, had a collapsed lung and was on a respirator until Wednesday evening, his friends said. He is still using an oxygen mask, the police said.
While an investigation into the shooting continues, John Timoney, Chief of Department, said Officer Del-Debbio would not immediately be questioned further about the shooting. He is on medical leave from the police department.
"He's got to go see the surgeon on Monday," Chief Timoney said. "He's just looking out for his medical and mental health."
Arriving home at 1:45 P.M. yesterday with his wife, Officer Del-Debbio said only: "I'm happy to be home."
Police Commissioner Bratton, who was also at the hospital when the two officers met for the second time, said the humanity of the moment between the two officers had been extraordinary.
"With all the attention and all the charges, allegations, cross charges, the two people that most count in this matter were together and interacting," the Commissioner said. "It was the rest of us out there trying to point fingers of blame here, there and everywhere, while these two guys seem to have found common ground to bring themselves together to deal with what they're going to have to deal with."
