Robbers Give Up Vow to Die For 'Victory and Paradise': 47-Hour Siege of Brooklyn Sporting-Goo By ROBERT D. McFADDEN New York Times (1923-Current file); Jan 22, 1973; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (1851-2008) pg. 63 Three of the four suspects being brought into the 90th Precinct stationhouse on Union Avenue. The fourth, wou~ded on Friqay, was taken to Kings County Hospital. . ..". . Robbers Give Up VOW to Die For? 'Victory and Paradise' By ROBERT D. McFADDEN A two-day ordeal of blazing bel'S of a militant Muslim sect,! gunfights, death 'and terrbr 'at abandoned their vow to die ft)fl a BrooklYn ~p~rti;lg-g~od~ 'stor~ "victory and paradise," prayed I ended :driunat'iCalIy: yesterday briefly, and then emerged fr0111 afternoon with' a 'daring roof John & AI Sports, Inc" at 927 escape by nine reinainin'g hos~ Broadway on the border of the tages and, several :ho,urs: later; Bushwick and Bedford-Stuythe peaceful surrender of four vesant sections. trapped gunmen. : . . The police identified the four The end of tlie: Iring; :grihi by their Muslim names as Salih ,siege-:-in which' a 'patrolman Ali Abdullah, Dawd?AbduHahwas, slain', ' two ,others: were Ar-Raflm~' Shulab Abdui Rawoul;lded' and at' times a dozt)n heem arid Yusef Abdul, who h~~tages 'w~r~ 'used' to' hold o'ff had addressed each other as 1, overwhelming police ,firepower 2, 3, 'and' 4, respectively, -came shortly before 5 P.M" throughout the siege. 47 hours after, an aborted rob- The police also said they bery touched off a raging gun- were searching for a fifth fight that slowed to a standoff. member of the group, who was Having lost the last of their said to have been driving a hostages four hours earlier and getaway car and escaped when thus their leverage against a the police interrupted the ~old- l police invasion that was never up shortly before 6 P.M. Friday_ actually threatened, the four They said the robbery was aimblack gunmen, who are mem- ed primarily at obtaining weapons, rather than money, for what the gunmen called "a holy crusade." By prearrangement with the police, the first of the four stepped out onto the glassstrewn sidewalk at 4:45 with his Continued on Page 16. Column 3 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Policemen searching hostages who had climbed off the sporting goods building onto an adjacent roof 47.Hour Siege' of BrooklynS porting-G oads Store Ends ; Continued From Page 1, Col. 4 ou~ of the line of any possible they would choose to surrender tw~ others, identified by the o fmng there, or-as they had vowed to do pollee only as Mr. Robinson's : hands over his ~ead. Moments That point was ~t the b.ase of earlier-fi&ht to the death. mother and brother. entered the : later, two of hIs confederates a long?closed. sta,lrvray In the The pollee, who had been store and began what proved to eme~ged, dragging a stretc~er three-story building,'a s~air- commu~icating with the gun- be the crucial dialogue that led bearmg the fourth accomplIce, way sealed off by half-1Och men wIth bullhorns from the to the surrender. street and a telephone line The Police Department's I - who had suffered a serious gun? plasterboard. I shot woundofthe abdomen. The pOlice, meanwhile, were brought in by a doctor who Chief of Patrol, Donald F, Caw. [ Scores of heavily armed po- moving around. in. the base- had treated, the wounded rob- ley, and Brooklyn District At o. o !icemen and detectives, their ment of an adjacent store, the ber, made It clear that they torney Eugene Gold said at a ? cautious step and spacing a P. Collazo & Sons Furniture had no intention of storming news conference later that no . promises were made to the gun, ? testimony to the dangers that Corporation, at 92~ Broadway. the ~t?re.. had unfolded in the street bat- The .three abl~bodled gu?m7n, 'YIlllam T. JOilnSOn, a. s~eclal men for their surrender, except ! t1eground. closed in slowly, hearmg the n~lse and thInkmg assistant to CommiSSIOner th.at they would "get a fair - thrust the three standing cap? that the polIce were about Murphy, was on the telephone, tnal." They were told the ? tives up against the wall, frisked break through and Iu.nch a,n talkmg to gunman No. 1 for charges on which they would I all four and led them away inlas~ult, dashed to the store s ~ost of th.e aftern?on, and was be booked. ! handcuffs to a nearby police thlrd.fl!,. or stor~ge rool?, m,o- &Iv~n major crCd.lt for nego.. At a swarming news confer~. mentartly Ignormg their prls- tlUtmg t~~ surrender., ence at the Union Avenue ? command post. , The three unhurt gunmen, all oners. . . In additIOn to the polIce ap? police station, Chief Cawley, ! black men in their 20's were Led by Mr. RICCIO, the hos? peals for a p.eaceful surrender, Mr. Gold, Mayor Lindsay and Ted Cowell I taken to the Union Avenue po. tages tore away the plaster? several relatIVes of. the gun? Police Commissioner Patrick v, In an effort to induce the gunmen to surrender, pollce lice station. The wounded gun- board, scrambled up the stair? me~ were brough~ In by the Murphy all made the point that brought relatives to their armored vehicle, parked on ! man, Yusef AMul, 20, was way, and then a ladd~r, and Po~,lcle to plead W1thb them. the gun~en-w~o had st~ted Broadway so that they could communicate with the gunP ease-no more u ets, no their belIef In dYing to achIeve ' . ak b I . t h , taken to Kings County Hospital broke through a skybght to [h b d 'freedom Waiting poIicemen- more bloodshed" begged Gloria paradise and V'lctOry over ra . I men over Ioudspe ers. A ove, two re atIves, one ate w ere e un erwentgiven as surpnsed to see the hostages Thomas, ' h ' her 0 f one af ' surgery. .' cia _ _ _ _o_p_,_a_re das_ID_g_o tbe_u_'_ra_c_v_e_Ic_e_,_ _---' t b' t __ f 11 t k h-] ? His conditio was [ e mot oppressIOn-had been persuad__ critical. n emerging,-helped them up lad? the gunmen, over a bullhof? in e.d finally that the only way to :=, All four were to be charged ders. to the roof of the an armored p~rsonnel. carner. fIght oppreSSion of minorities : with the murder Friday night furmture store, then down more Mrs. ?elallle Robmson, of would be to stay alive. ~ , of 29-year-old Patrolnian Ste- ladders to the, roof of 931 215 Maflon Street! Brooklyn, Praise for Police . l phen R Gilroy' the attempted Broadway and fmally down to who the polIce said was the M ., the street . wife of Carv Earl Robinson, ayor Lindsay and Com: I T~rder a~ latkl~en ~?se When the gunmen discov. a leader of the gunmen whose miSSioner Murphy had effusive rand d' arg en ~~J~ ered the loss of the hostages, Muslim name was not given, pra.isc for the hundreds of , homo an , w o. were whounhe, e I d they fired several shots also pleaded: "Let no more pol~ccmen who had battled and nappmg 0 f t store Patrolman f d IC robbery of the e ostages, an th roug h th e roo, but st ruck no bl 00 d be she. P' k up your waited throught the long vigil C t' d tl ? B h , Adorno was released from the one. They were still equipped wounded and your arms, bring ou SI leo Sd th?t f ex? or I hospital Friday night after with hundreds of guns and them out. Please, please, don't Pf~tse h g~atItu e d fa ety I! con I treatment of an arm wound thousands of rounds of am- do anything more. He will back to the fOS ~ll?es afn th ! o. enceds tl I but Patrolman Carpentier re-'munl'tl'on . from the sto re 's I'n - y 0 U, He WI'11 helP you o " 0 e amit 1 . e s am an \I . d d les 0 I mained in critical condition at ventory, and for several tense please listen." wo~~ ~ p~ ~o men. a1 a Cumberland Hospital yesterday ; 'hours it was unclear whether Later, Mrs. Robinson and at the srtee Ion ?hstages but news- h e at . ouse, so were e He had suffered ~ leg wound men were not permitted to int that severed a major artery. Police HelD terview them immediately. None f( The surrender of the calm but Hostages To had been harmed, though all , haggard .gunmen was the climax Next Building' had endured the terrors of gun. n t' or an afternoon fraught with ,. _ pOint captivity. SI suspense. The beginning of the They were identified as Clea- T ; end came shortly after 1 P.M. von Snyder, 21; Dennis Smith, tl ! vhen nine remaining hostages25; Gregory Middleton, 17; Luis e; o seven men and two womenMojica Jr., 16; Joaquin Geraldo tl I scrambled up a hidden stairwell, Danasceno, 30; Jerry Riccio, 36; ! broke through a skylight on the Robert Diaz, 19; Bonnie Buck? h ner, 21,. and Rosemary Hol~er, 0 : roof of the sporting-goods store ? and with the aid of policemen 15. TheIr addresses were With- l'I the~e mounted ladders to an held by the police. , adjoining roof and escaped. During the first 24 hours of , The success of the escape the siege, the gunmen had reo f' I 8.ppeared to be accidental. leased three other hostagcs- ' There was no coordination beJudy Malavet, 20, of 35 Arion n I tween the hostages and the Place, Brooklyn; Mi~hael Zayas, tl , police, and what had appeared 21, and Domingo Pillot 37. . ~ [ to be a preparation for a sneak Sa'!lu~I, Rosenblu!U, who IS I assault by the police served as Mr. RICCIO s partner III the store, ~ I a distraction that left the hoswas held brIefly by the gunmen . I tages unattended long enough during the ho!dup shortly be? to get away. The police said it fore 6 P.M. Friday, He esca~ed b ? happened this way: when the gunmen, attempting ! One of the hostages, Jerry to use him as a shield as they n , Riccio, a partner of the store, The New York Tll11o"JaR. 22, 1973 emerged from the store, ex? U ! persuaded the gunm/!n~to allow While gunmen,?~ distracted by noise of police lIloving in changed gunfire with t11e first ~ , the hostages to move to a dark? of the arriving pOlicemen. : ened corner .of the second?floor adjacent building (broken lines) ran to third floor, CommunIcation Effort s balcony, saymg they would be hostages broke through a thin wall and fled to roof. Af th fl f th .. ter e ereest 0 e gun? L """'"r."""",$"""""'''''''",,m'''"'~''''''"'~'''i,'i~_,=W":""":~::"::"':l<'~m:':l:@'i:"::':::':r@:"'::::":"::':":"':::~"':::'~':::':":::::':':~::::l'@::::::l:i:':l:':~l::'i':':''''i::i:lW;.'<''~l:S:<'ii:::l::~:'::("':iii:~",':\o;@>>'''~:~ fighting had subsided at mid? s evening Friday night, the long r siege became an effort by the ( authorities to establish communications with the gunmen. , A break came late Saturday t afternoon when the desperados ( agreed to release Mr. Plllot: in exchange for the services of a volunteer physician, Dr. Thomas W. Matthew, head of the National Economic Growth and Reconstruction Organization (NEGRO) and of Interfaith Hospital in Queens. Dr. Matthew made three trips into the store Saturday night to treat the wounded gunman and to bring in food and a telephone line. He emerged from his third trip into the store before mid? night with a letter written by the gunmen. , During the tense hours after the hostages Ilad escaped when it was still uncertain whether lhe gunmen would surrender, more than 50 shots were fired from inside the sporting?goods : store. The police had fired no shots at the store since Friday night, fearing they might hit the hostages. Moments after the surrender, the first subway train to pass above the scene on the BMT elevated tracks since the siege began Friday night fumbled by. the first. sign of a return to busy activity on the street. In less than a half hour, the shop-lined thoroughfare was again bustling with people. At midafternoon. a crowd of about 500 spectators, who had kept behind police barricades a block and n half away on Broadway, became unruly and began hurling bottles and other dehris at the police. Several policemen were reported to have been hit hut not seriously hurt. The police appealed for calm over a public-address system, hut the tension of two days of heavy police presence ill the predominantly black and Puerto Rican neighbor? hood remained until the gUll' men surrendered. i d art 3 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.