By Jennifer C. Smith
The Bay Terrace man convicted of shooting a police officer during a botched robbery attempt five years ago at his father’s loft in Manhattan has died in prison.
Scott Schneiderman, 42, died on June 17, in Attica State Prison, an official at the prison said. He was serving a life sentence for the shooting of 31-year-old Officer Anthony Sanchez during the May 1997 robbery of his father’s Manhattan apartment.
The Attica official did not disclose the cause of death, but the New York Post reported Schneiderman apparently had died of AIDS.
The former stockbroker on Wall Street and resident of Bay Terrace carried a .25-caliber pistol and wore a ski mask when he broke into his father’s apartment on West 17th Street. He assaulted his father, Raphael, and his father’s fiancée, tying up the couple with duct tape and ransacking their apartment for money.
Schneiderman fled when he realized police had responded to the burglary and encountered Sanchez on the stairwell outside the apartment. Schneiderman took at least six shots at the officer and one bullet lodged in his skull, killing him, the Manhattan district attorney said.
He testified at his trial that he only shot at Sanchez after the police officer fired at him “for no reason.”
After the shooting, Schneiderman hid in the building’s basement until more police arrived and arrested him.
After the shooting, prosecutors said Schneiderman, who was fired from his father’s garment business, was not making sufficient income on Wall Street to support his “yuppie” lifestyle, as neighbors called it, the TimesLedger reported.
Following Schneiderman’s arrest, politicians such as former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Gov. George Pataki pressured Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau to seek the death penalty.
Instead, Morgenthau chose a sentence of life without parole.
