Fatal tussle ruled slay; teen charged
Queens caretaker, 79, is killed in bid to protect golf course
The death of an elderly Queens golf course caretaker who died trying to protect the grounds from teen vandals has been ruled a homicide, police said Friday.
William Hinchey, 79, was working at the Forest Park Golf Course in Woodhaven on Sept. 8 when he saw teens riding bicycles near the 15th hole, trying to steal a flag, police said.
One witness told detectives that he saw a young man yank Hinchey out of his golf cart and drag him across the greens before knocking him to the ground, according to a criminal complaint.
A second witness identified the suspect as 19-yearold David Mangaran, of Maspeth.
The teen was charged Wednesday with felony assault and criminally negligent homicide, and ordered held on $25,000 bond, court records show.
A Nassau County medical examiner ruled Hinchey’s death a homicide after determining that he fractured his right femur from the blunt force trauma, then went into respiratory failure during surgery at Jamaica Hospital three days later.
Mangaran, when questioned by detectives, had a softer version of events and said he only realized how old Hinchey was after he fell.
“A golf cart was coming at us. The guy was coming towards us and put his arms up. I pulled away and I tugged him. He fell on the floor. I realized it was an old man,” Mangaran said, according to court papers.
Hinchey’s neighbors in Clearview described him as gentle man with a heart of gold. Upstairs neighbor Joseph Caravella, 55, recalled only one spat — who would shovel the snow the morning after a storm. Caravella is an Assembly District 27 committee member who’s running for reelection.
“We both came out at the same time with shovels. And he goes ‘ I’m shoveling!’ [I replied] ‘ No you’re not, I’m shoveling,’” Caravella recalled. Hinchey then ordered his neighbor to “get inside, you whippersnapper!”
“I hadn’t heard the term whippersnapper in like 100 years. I cracked up laughing,” Caravella said.
The elderly man followed the baseball scores — teasing his upstairs neighbor when the Mets lost — and was devoted to golf.
“When he wasn’t working on the course, he was playing on the course,” Caravella said. “[He] never had a bad word to say about anybody. He was just one of those truly kind people who just cared about everyone and everything.
“I hope they get justice for him and his family,” he added.
Mangaran is due back in court on Monday.