Say sorry, Bratton
Mailman in bad bust: Don’t ax cops, but I want apology
THE SHATTERED family of a Staten Island mother and son gunned down in a feud wept in shared grief Wednesday at a wrenching double funeral.
Among the mourners, little Kaylani Rosado, 8, and one of her tiny cousins tearfully clutched one another at the services for their aunt Idelle Rivera, who was 47, and her 21-year-old son Anthony Pena.
The victims’ inconsolable father and husband, also Anthony Pena, 56, sobbed in the front row at the Brooklyn Funeral Home.
A beef over money led Anthony Morales to fatally shoot the two outside the Mariners Harbor Houses apartment complex, police said. Morales, 49, was arrested in Pennsylvania after a shootout with cops.
Rivera and her son were described as inseparable, and Deacon Jaime Varela beseeched mourners to focus on their joyfully intertwined lives, not their tragic end.
Idelle’s younger sister, Rochelle Rivera, 31, said she’s trying to stay strong to keep the extended family together. “I cried so much that I don’t have any more tears left,” she said. A POSTAL WORKER busted by cursing cops in Brooklyn earlier this month wants an apology from the city’s top cop.
Glen Grays was working on President St. in Crown Heights when he says his mail truck was nearly hit by an unmarked car. Grays shouted at the driver, who threw the car in reverse and screamed back at the mail carrier.
Four cops in plainclothes got out of the car, slapped him in handcuffs, frisked him and carted him off to the 71st Precinct stationhouse. Grays, 27, was charged with resisting arrest on March 17. Video of the arrest has gone viral and the Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating.
“Honestly, speaking we’re all human, we all make mistakes, but lately a lot of mistakes have been made by police officers,” Grays told the Daily News on Wednesday.
“I would take an apology from Mr. Bratton himself, and I would like to see the officers disciplined, but I wouldn’t want them to lose their jobs.”
Bratton has said he had strong concerns about the arrest. Investigators were trying to determine why the officers, part of a unit that focuses on certain issues in a given neighborhood, were not in uniform. The officers have been bounced to patrol pending the outcome of the Internal Affairs investigation.
Patrick Lynch, head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, cautioned against a “rush to judgment.”
“Everyone, including the police commission
er, should withhold public comment until all the facts are in,” Lynch said.
He also put part of the blame on Grays: “No one ever has the right to resist arrest. Compliance is not optional.”
Grays, whose fiancée is a city cop, said the incident doesn’t change how he feels about police.
“My point of view on officers is a couple of bad apples doesn't spoil the whole barrel,” he told The News.
Still, he said, he felt “disrespected to the maximum.”
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who has been a vocal critic of the cops involved in the arrest, said Wednesday he has asked police to release all video of the incident.
“If that video reaffirms concerns that the arrest was unjust, I would expect and ask for PBA President Lynch to make an apology to the Grays family and the United States Postal Service,” he said, adding that he would apologize if video vindicates the cops.
The police car Grays was riding in got into a minor wreck while en route to the stationhouse. A source told The News the accident report identifies the cops as Lt. Luis Machado, and officers Lazo Lluka, Miguel Rodriguez and David Savella.