By Joe Anuta
A Briarwood woman who worked as a tax enforcement agent was shot multiple times and killed by her retired cop husband late Saturday night in Briarwood, neighbors and the NYPD said.
Police received a call shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday and arrived at 43-41 84th Drive to find Tracey Young, 42, shot in the head and torso in the apartment she shared with her husband, according to police.
Emergency personnel also arrived and pronounced her dead at the scene.
Her husband, Clarence Cash, 49, later turned himself in to law enforcement officials, neighbors were told by police. He was subsequently charged with first-degree murder, police said.
“I’m shocked. They seemed like a nice couple,” said Maple Dong, a friend who lives in the same building as Young and sat on the condo board with her. “It’s bizarre.”
Dong had talked with Young Saturday afternoon, about seven hours before her death.
The two discussed condo business for about two hours, and Young appeared completely normal, Dong said.
She had even revealed that her husband, Cash, had already splurged on an expensive Louis Vuitton purse for her ahead of the holidays, according to Dong.
“He was very caring,” Dong said of Cash, whom she described as a retired cop who worked in Harlem.
But Saturday afternoon, Cash was led out of the 107th Precinct in cuffs.
On the night of the incident, neighbors said they heard arguing and then a loud noise as the shots were fired, although Dong said she had never seen the two fight.
“They were cool to each other,” she said.
Young did not work for the NYPD like her husband, but her job as an agent in the state Department of Taxation and Finance sometimes resembled a primetime television crime show.
In documents from a 2008 U.S. Eastern District case, Young gave testimony about staking out a cigarette smuggling operation out of the Poospatuck Indian Reservation in Long Island.
Other court documents from the Eastern District describe a woman approaching Young to become an informant for the department.
Neighbors said Young was a kind woman who was always helpful when dealing with problems at the condo.
“She did stuff for the kids and made the building more personal and livable,” said neighbor Greg Gilarowski, who said that days earlier he saw Young decorating the Christmas tree that now decorates the lobby.
Reach reporter Joe Anuta by e-mail at januta@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
