‘No Anger, Just Sadness’ In Churchfront Shootout

Monsignor Joseph Malagreca bears no ill will toward the gun- and knife-wielding suspect that lopped the head off a $10,000 granite statue and left two police officers wounded in front of Saints Joachim and Anne Church in Queens Village on Sunday.
“We feel like it was a very isolated incident,” Malagreca told The Queens Courier. “We’re more concerned for the policemen. We’ve been praying for him [suspect Kevin Davy] and the two policemen every day. We have no anger, just sadness.”
And according to Malagreca, the family is well-known. In fact, their youngest daughter was valedictorian in her class at Saints Joachim and Anne School.
The incident occurred when the officers, Dominick Romano and David Harris, both of the 105th Precinct, came upon Davy decapitating a century-old statue of St. Anne and the Virgin Mary.
The gun-wielding Davy, an alleged cop-hater who had previously made an anti-government and anti-police DVD with his brother, ambushed the officers, shooting Romano once in the head and eight times in the back, and Harris five times in the leg. Harris returned fire, injuring the suspect.
A passing motorist, Tyrone Murphy, an emergency room nurse from Valley Stream, observed the downed officers and ran to their aid.
“I was going to Walgreens for milk and juice,” he said. “I saw the police officer lying on the ground and he yelled out to me, ‘Please help me.’ He was bleeding profusely from his right knee. I used my shirt as a tourniquet and then consoled him that it was going to be all right.”
The humble hero said that his actions were purely instinctual.
“It was just instinct and a little bit of what I do as a nurse,” Murphy said. “I credit God because I wouldn’t have been in that situation if He didn’t bring me there. The cops are really the heroes because they are out there ensuring the peace.”
According to relatives, Davy, who suffers from bipolar disorder, was angry prior to the attack.
But a childhood friend who went to Springfield Gardens High School with Davy and who asked to remain anonymous said, “He didn’t seem like he had any problems. In fact, he rarely got in trouble.”
Harris suffered a shattered femur and underwent surgery at Long Island Jewish Hospital. And despite being shot in the head, Romano suffered no brain damage, according to doctors. Davy is listed in stable condition at Mary Immaculate Hospital.
toni@queenscourier.com