The retired NYPD sergeant who allegedly shouted "Gun!" moments before a Long Island plainclothes cop was shot dead by an MTA officer has been identified as John B. Cafarella by the head of the Nassau Police Benevolent Association. Cafarella, 58, lives nearby and was reportedly driving by moments after Nassau police fatally shot an emotionally disturbed man in his house. A police source tells the Daily News that Cafarella pulled over and stationed himeself on the front lawn "barking orders, even though he had no role or business being there."

About 10 minutes later, Geoffrey Breitkopf, an on-duty Nassau County plainclothes cop, arrived with his partner in an unmarked car. After conferring with officers on the street outside the house, Breitkopf walked up to Anthony DiGeronimo's home with his M-4 rifle pointing down. Someone shouted "gun!" and moments later an MTA cop fatally shot Breitkopf; investigators are questioning Cafarella to determine if he was the one who yelled the fateful word. Police have not said that they intended to charge anyone with a crime, the Times reports.

Breitkopf’s funeral will be held at St. Margaret of Scotland Roman Catholic Church in Selden, N.Y., at 12:30 p.m. Friday. Over on the insidery NYPD Rant message board, there's a lot of discussion about the tragedy, and boy howdy are they pissed at the Nassau PBA chief for identifying Cafarella. One writes, "This PBA guy has some balls blaming other COPS for being there. In fact, it's absolutely DISGRACEFUL that he would even THINK that... Why doesn't he blame Andy-Boy's daddy for letting all these EDPs walk the streets with impunity, rather than keeping them in confinement? I guess politics are more important than protecting your own."

Meanwhile, the father of Anthony DiGeronimo, who allegedly rushed at officers with a raised knife, is excoriating the police for killing his son. "A bullet to the leg. Something, anything except killing the little boy in front of me when I asked them not to," David DiGeronimo tells Newsday. "If he has to be arrested, we'll deal with that, but to empty... guns into him—no reason for that. If I have a knife and you have a gun, you shoot me in the leg." Nassau police spokesman Det. Lt. Kevin Smith explains, "Officers aren't taught to shoot to kill. They are taught to shoot to stop, and the way to learn to do that is shoot for the center of the mass, and that's the center of the torso."