By CARA BUCKLEY
Published: July 8, 2007
A Brooklyn man was killed in a drawn-out gunfight with the police yesterday after squeezing a lifetime of mayhem into less than 20 minutes, carjacking and crashing two cars, firing at an apartment door and a carful of strangers, and then finally at officers who closed in after he squirmed out of a driver’s window, the police said.
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Carjacking and Fatal Shooting After the police shot him on a busy Crown Heights street, the man, Victor Gordon, 23, got up, and began again to shoot before the police fired a final barrage. He was pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital, the police said, and as night fell, they counted at least 122 shell casings strewn along Park Place near Albany Avenue in Crown Heights, where the shootout took place.
Despite all the bullets, only one other person was injured, a man who was hit in the arm when Mr. Gordon shot at a car he had tried to carjack, the police said.
The precise motive of the wild shooting and carjacking spree was not immediately known, but the police speculated that it might have been prompted by an argument that Mr. Gordon had Friday night with his companion, and the mother of his child.
The mayhem started near the southeast corner of Prospect Park shortly before 2 p.m., where the police said
Mr. Gordon carjacked a Dodge Charger on St. Pauls Place — around the corner from where he lived — by forcing the driver out with a 9 millimeter handgun.
He drove to an apartment building at 1030 President Street, just east of the park, where his companion’s parents live. He went into the building and, getting no answer, fired two shots at their door.
J. R. Jones, 47, who lives on the first floor, said his 12-year-old daughter had been outside when the gunman arrived. “She said he was drunk,” Mr. Jones said. “She said he fell down, pointed a gun at everyone on the block and then got up and got into the car.”
Then, the police said, Mr. Gordon got into the Charger and sped off, winding his way northeast through a maze of streets before crashing into an empty storefront at 1647 Pacific Street in Crown Heights. He got out of the car, and, waving his gun, tried to carjack a Nissan Maxima that had three people inside, but the driver sped off. Infuriated, Mr. Gordon fired shots at the Maxima but missed, instead hitting the driver of a Jeep Cherokee parked nearby. The driver, a 46-year-old man, was hit in the left arm and taken to Kings County Hospital, where he was in stable condition last night.
Mr. Gordon then took off on foot, walking three blocks to Albany Avenue and Pacific Street, where he forced the driver of a silver Lincoln Town Car, a livery car, out at gunpoint, hopped into the car and began driving south on Albany Avenue. He made it three blocks before slamming into a lamppost at Park Place, hitting it with such force that it crushed the car’s front end and sent the lamppost’s arm crashing to the ground.
It is a busy intersection, with a coin laundry, a bodega, a Chinese restaurant, Lucky Chueng Kitchen and the Albany Houses project, and people began drifting over to check on the driver and look at the car, which was nearly wrapped around the lamppost.
Ricky Williams, 46, who lives nearby, heard the boom of the impact and went outside. The driver was sitting behind the wheel, dazed, Mr. Williams said. The stench of oil and gas was filling the air, and Mr. Williams said, the driver, barely visible behind the car’s crumpled front end, began groping around. A paramedic who happened to be nearby approached the car, but the driver aimed a gun at him and the paramedic retreated fast, his arms covering his face, Mr. Williams said.
Then, the driver, visibly groggy, tried to get out of the passenger side of the car, first head first, then foot first, before finally wriggling out one arm and foot at a time, Mr. Williams said. The moment the driver hit the ground, police cars arrived, lights flashing, sirens screaming. The police opened their car doors, and crouched behind them, ordering the driver to drop his gun, Mr. Williams said. The driver did not, witnesses said, and instead began firing at the officers.
“That’s when all hell broke loose,” said Mr. Williams.
The police immediately began firing back, and the driver returned their shots, all the while weaving in and out of parked cars and slowly making his way up the south side of Park Place toward Troy Avenue as bystanders, including children, dove for cover and shattered glass flew.
It was not immediately clear how many officers were firing. Mr. William guessed he heard about 60 shots, and that the shootout lasted over two minutes. Then, the driver was hit in the chest, and slumped to the sidewalk, behind the cars, he said. For about 20 seconds, everything was silent, according to another witness, Sue Ann Peace, 42. Mr. Williams said he saw the driver staggering back up to his feet, and began firing again, as officers fired back. Witnesses guessed they heard another 30 or 40 shots, and that the second shootout lasted two minutes.
By that time, officers were streaming up Park Place from both Albany Avenue and Troy Avenue, cornering the driver. He was shot again several times, and fell, this time for good. Mr. Williams said he saw four or five officers jump on top of the driver’s body, but that he did not move again. It was about 2:10 p.m., witnesses said, less than twenty minutes after Mr. Gordon took the first car. Mr. Gordon, who lived at 1834 Caton Avenue, just south of Prospect Park, was paroled last June after serving 17 months in prison for criminal possession of weapon, according to records from the state’s Department of Corrections.
Sandra Brown, 59, an aunt of Mr. Gordon, who was sitting outside her nephew’s apartment last night with relatives and friends, said that Mr. Gordon, a house painter, lived in the apartment with his mother, two sisters and a brother. She said Mr. Gordon’s companion, the mother of their 3-year-old child, had been there the previous night and that the couple had argued. “I know they’re always fighting,” said Ms. Brown.
On President Street, several hours after Mr. Gordon came looking for his companion, the woman’s mother began to search herself.
“I’m trying to find her,” her mother, who did not give her name, said last night. “I don’t know where she is.”
Daryl Khan, David K. Randall, Ethan Wilensky-Lanford and Timothy Williams contributed reporting.
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