B’klyn brute grins as he’s held in ‘stare’ slay
WHAT ARE you smirking at?
A callous teen accused of knifing a man to death following a stare-down outside a Brooklyn park had a self-satisfied sneer plastered across his face as he was brought to court Friday.
Gary Correa, 19, said nothing as two NYPD detectives led him out of the 94th Precinct stationhouse to a waiting cop car.
His next stop: Brooklyn Criminal Court, where the smug suspected killer was arraigned on charges of a second-degree murder and weapons possession.
Correa is accused of plunging a knife into 42-year-old George Carroll’s chest on Aug. 18 — puncturing his lung and heart — in front of his screaming wife.
Correa remained handcuffed and only turned around to survey the courtroom once during his brief arraignment.
Judge Christopher Robles refused to set bail Friday afternoon, meaning Correa will spend the long weekend in a jail cell.
His attorney for the proceeding, Laurence Orthstein, said another lawyer, to be assigned on Tuesday, will make a bail request.
Carroll, an actor and playwright originally from Texas, and his wife, Christina Romero, were steps away from their Greenpoint home on Monitor St. by McGolrick Park when an innocent glance turned deadly.
Correa was hanging outside a public school with a group of other men when Carroll made eye contact with one of them.
“What are you looking at?” someone in the group shouted before Correa grabbed a knife from his van, chased Carroll down and stabbed him, police sources said.
After a 13-day manhunt, members of the NYPD’s Violent fugitive task force captured Correa leaving a friend’s home on Norman St. and Guernsey Ave. — roughly 10 blocks from the scene of the murder, police said.
“They got no shame in their game,” Greenpoint resident Dolly Padilla, 55, said of Correa’s demeanor outside the precinct. “They don’t care.”
Romero moved out of the Monitor St. home she shared with her husband on Friday.
“She at a loss. She can’t speak,” said a friend helping load boxes into a waiting SUV. “We are moving her out. It’s best for her safety. This guy’s family lives around the block. He was smirking,” the friend added with disgust. “I would have jumped over everybody and punched him in the face.”
Down the street, a makeshift memorial was set up near McGolrick Park in honor of Carroll. Boxing gloves were hung above a collection of candles, photos and flowers at the tragic site. The car carrying Romero and her things paused for moment as she stepped out to take a picture of the tribute.