A former cop has been charged with murder for the shooting death of his wife in their Briarwood apartment.
On Saturday, December 10 shortly after 11 p.m., 49-year-old Clarence Cash shot his wife Tracey Young numerous times in the head and torso with a pistol, according to the district attorney.
Young, 42, — deemed one of the top criminal investigators for the State Department of Taxation and Finance by multiple sources — was pronounced dead on arrival. She died from four shots to the torso and three to the face.
Cash, a retired cop from the 32nd Precinct in Harlem, turned himself in hours later, surrendering two loaded nine millimeter semi-automatic pistols.
“She didn’t deserve that,” Cash repeatedly told cops when he walked into the Midtown South stationhouse at 6 a.m. “He continued to say, ‘She did not deserve that. She did not deserve that,’” Queens prosecutor Robert Hanophy said at Cash’s arraignment on December 11.
Cash said he attempted to commit suicide at Rockaway Beach, according to Hanophy, but couldn’t go through with it.
He has been ordered held without bail, according to the DA, and is due back in court on January 3. Cash was charged with second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.
Multiple sources have reported that the couple was fighting over financial issues, but according to the NYPD, the pair was only said to be “arguing,” and there is no other information regarding what fueled the heated, deadly dispute.
Building residents told The Courier they’re shocked to hear of Young’s death.
“My husband and I met the couple a few times,” said Sumera, a fourth floor resident who did not want to give her last name. “She was a nice lady, but we didn’t have much interaction with her. We moved to this place because of our baby, but now we’re scared. It was very shocking and very unfortunate. She didn’t deserve it.”
Another female resident who lives on the sixth floor said, “I feel really sad because the lady was so nice. I met her a few times. I don’t know why [her husband] shot her. I didn’t hear them argue because we live on the sixth floor, but it’s very sad.”
— Additional reporting by Nargas Karimi.
