Off-Duty ATF Agent Slain In LI Robbery Confrontation Was Picking Up Cancer Meds For His Dad

On New Year's Ever, a pharmacy robbery on Long Island turned fatal when an off-duty ATF agent—and eventually an off-duty NYPD cop and an off-duty Nassau County lieutenant—confronted the suspect. John Capano, an ATF explosives specialist, was killed as was suspect James McGoey. The Nassau County police are investigating the incident, and it's possible "friendly fire" from the off-duty cops may have killed Capano.

Capano had been in Charlie's Family Pharmacy on Merrick Road in Seaford to pick up cancer medication for his 82-year-old retired NYPD detective dad. McGoey appeared with what looked like a handgun in his waistband and asked for cash and Opana, an oxymorphne. Capano also entered and reportedly took out his weapon when he saw McGoey. The Post reports:

“He reached for his sidearm and engaged Mr. McGoey,” the source said, adding that the perp then moved toward the front door, his gun drawn and his pockets stuffed with cash and drugs.

At the same time, two women who had witnessed the robbery ran to the deli, which is owned by the family of retired Nassau County police Lt. Chris Garaghty, 54.

Garaghty sprang into action, rushing to the scene with Joseph Abria, a 29-year-old off-duty NYPD cop who was also at the deli.

It was unclear how many shots were fired and whose bullet killed Capano during the ensuing mayhem just outside the drugstore’s front door.

Sources indicated that McGoey was wielding only a realistic-looking pellet gun.

The NY Times notes, "Should investigators conclude that the fatal bullet or bullets were fired by the off-duty New York City officer or the retired Nassau lieutenant, it would underscore a peculiar danger that law enforcement officers in Nassau County and some other New York suburbs face: the ubiquity of other officers — on duty, off-duty and retired — who often converge at the scenes of emergencies, raising the possibility that an officer might be mistaken for a criminal." In March, a MTA cop accidentally killed a plainclothes Nassau County cop who was wielding a weapon while was going into a home for an arrest; a retired NYPD cop near apparently yelled, referring to the plainclothes cop, "He's got a gun."

McGoey was a career criminal, with four robbery convictions (three of them for robbing pharmacies). And Capano's father, James Capano, stood outside the pharmacy yesterday, saying, "I should have gone" to the pharmacy instead.