Jason Katanic didn’t have a clean record when he was hired as a firearms instructor for the NY Correction Department, but he definitely had experience with guns. The city is now investigating how the ex-con—who as a teen went on a robbing and shooting spree that left one of his pals dead—got the job in the first place.
When Katanic was 18, back in 1988, he'd just graduated from Fordham Prep with honors, reported the NY Post. But he and some friend got into trouble when they took a rifle and robbed a clerk at a local bodega. High on the crime, they went on a shooting spree in the neighborhood, blasting out car windows, and then pulled up to another driver and demanded his wallet. In an unlucky turn, the man was an off-duty police officer who fired five shots at them, one into Katanic’s friend's face. But instead of surrendering then the teens peeled off and dumped the boy’s body in Ferry Point Park. They made a pact of silence, but one of their girlfriends got scared and called the police. Katanic spent six months in jail for armed robbery. Eight years after being released he got the job teaching prison guards how to shoot guns.
It’s still unclear how Katanic got hired in spite of his past misdeeds, which should have disqualified him. "A background check turned up a sealed court record, but no details were available," a spokesman of the Correction Department said. The recent probe into Katanic’s past was spurred by an insider tip that he was buying illegal weapons.
