The partner of the undercover transit officer wounded in a subway shootout last week has told investigators that the off-duty New York City police officer who mistakenly fired on the undercover officer "was shooting with a vengeance," and appeared intent on killing him.
Transit Officer David Thompson, in a 45-minute interview he gave to investigators, said Officer Peter Del-Debbio's face was full of anger as he emptied his five-shot revolver into Transit Officer Desmond Robinson, and added, "I would never have thought in my wildest dreams that he was a police officer. "
"Very angry, violent, psychotic," Officer Thompson told investigators when they asked him to describe Officer Del-Debbio. "A terrorist. A bank robber. He was shooting with a vengeance. It wasn't like he was shooting to run for cover, like he was shooting for someone to go down. He wanted to kill that person he was shooting."
Officer Thompson's account of the shooting is likely to weigh significantly in the Manhattan District Attorney's investigation of Officer Del-Debbio's actions. Investigators must determine whether the shooting was a terrible but understandable mistake, or whether Officer Del-Debbio, thinking Officer Robinson was a criminal, used unjustifiable force in shooting him five times.
According to a senior law enforcement official close to the investigation, Officer Thompson is considered one of the most credible and most useful of the half-dozen eyewitnesses. The official, though, cautioned that Officer Thompson himself had been caught in a frightening and emotional event, which could color his recollection of some details.
The official, who insisted on anonymity, also noted that Officer Thompson's focus was trained on Officer Del-Debbio during the shooting, and that he thus could not see Officer Robinson. Investigators have concluded that Officer Robinson had his gun in his hand and might have been moving as he lay on the ground before Officer Del-Debbio.
At one juncture in the interview, Officer Thompson describes the shooting as having "almost looked like an execution." And while he was not asked specifically about the sequence of shots, his account suggests that Officer Del-Debbio may have fired twice at Officer Robinson, paused, and then opened fire again.
An audiotape of the interview, conducted in the Brooklyn office of the transit police's Internal Affairs Bureau on Aug. 24, was provided to The New York Times by Officer Thompson's lawyer. The lawyer, Barry Agulnick, said he was also going to provide a copy of the tape to Officer Robinson's family and lawyer.
'Emotionalism on All Sides'
Associates of Officer Robinson, who is still hospitalized, and a group of black police officers have questioned whether Officer Del-Debbio, who is white, might have assumed that Officer Robinson was a criminal because he is black. Officer Thompson, a six-year veteran of the force, is also black.
Mr. Agulnick said he did not want Officer Thompson to talk to reporters until after the District Attorney finished his inquiry, but he said that both Officers Thompson and Robinson were willing to make public the tape of his interview with investigators.
"Officer Thompson has no political agenda, no racial agenda," said Mr. Agulnick. "He wants the truth to come out."
James Lysaght, the lawyer for the police union whose firm is representing Officer Del-Debbio, said last night that the officer acted "in a way that is within the bounds of New York law."
"The circumstances of the incident and the investigation are fraught with emotionalism on all sides," said Mr. Lysaght. "It is best sorted out by the District Attorney."
Partner Moved Between Shots
The shooting on Aug. 22 in the subway station at 53d Street and Lexington Avenue came after transit police officers responded to a report of two youths with guns on the platform. One youth dropped a shotgun, which went off, and Officer Del-Debbio, who was on his way home, then saw Officer Robinson and mistook him for an armed suspect.
Mr. Agulnick said Officer Thompson was scheduled to be questioned again next week. The District Attorney is widely expected to submit the findings of his investigation to a grand jury sometime this month.
In the taped interview, Officer Thompson is not directly asked whether Officer Del-Debbio fired continuously or whether he paused after the first shots and then opened fire again -- a question that is at the center of the investigation.
But Officer Thompson makes clear that after Officer Robinson was struck by the first shot from the off-duty officer, he himself had time to take cover and reposition himself before Officer Del-Debbio took a step out of the subway train and fired as many as three shots into the back of the prone plain-clothes officer. Investigators are expected to closely question Officer Thompson next week about the succession of shots.
Officer Thompson told investigators that he saw his partner fall to the ground after being hit once, and that he later saw Officer Del-Debbio emerge from the subway car, extend a hand to Officer Robinson's hip and fire three times, pointing downward, from roughly two feet away.
Officer Thompson said he believed Officer Del-Debbio was wounded by a uniformed transit officer after he had finished firing at Officer Robinson. Investigators said earlier this week that they were exploring the possibility that Officer Del-Debbio had been struck before he had emptied his gun into Officer Robinson, and thus perhaps felt he was under attack from multiple gunmen.
'Don't Want to Believe It'
After the shooting, Officer Thompson approached Officer Del-Debbio and found him bleeding and insisting that he was a police officer.
"I didn't believe him, not after I saw his face, and the way he was shooting," said Officer Thompson. "I still don't want to believe it."
Officer Thompson also told investigators he was surprised to find a set of handcuffs on the off-duty officer, and that he was further confused when the officer asked him to "secure my bag" because there was a police radio in it. Since March, Officer Del-Debbio was assigned to an office in the Organized Crime Control Bureau at Police Headquarters.
"I'm thinking, handcuffs?" said Officer Thompson. "He's inside. Why is he carrying a radio and all this stuff?" But a Police Department spokesman said yesterday that it was not unusual for off-duty officers to carry handcuffs to and from work.
For Officer Thompson, though, the image seared into his consciousness, and what most upset him was what he had observed of Officer Del-Debbio.
"I would have never thought in my wildest dreams that he was a police officer because of the way he looked," said Officer Thompson. "He was firing in anger."
