15147: Hermantin: Nemorin: A 'Very Proud Detective' (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Nemorin: A 'Very Proud Detective'

By Stephanie Saul and Sean Gardiner
STAFF WRITERS; Staff writer Keiko Morris contributed to this story.
Posted March 12 2003

As a child, he had dreamed of becoming a cop, and colleagues said he had
become one of the best. But as a devoted father, he worried about the
hazards of his job as an undercover detective.

"He understood that he risked his life every single day," Carlos Jimenez
said of his former neighbor in South Ozone Park.

The Haitian-born father of three young children - known to colleagues as
"the Haitian sensation" or the "Haitian prince" for his natty wardrobe - was
one of two city police officers assassinated Monday night in Staten Island.

The Police Department asked that the names of the two officers not be
published last night to protect other undercover cops who worked with them.

Yet several Queens neighbors, including Jimenez, said they were aware the
officer was working undercover stings.

It was a job in which the 36-year-old officer excelled, according to his
former supervisor, Lt. James Russell, of Brooklyn South Narcotics.

"I know a lot of this sounds like a cliché, but it's not. He was definitely
the best undercover working for me in Brooklyn South," said Russell.

In the street, the 6-foot-4 detective could morph into many different
characters, Russell said, "but if he got a call [from his family] he'd
switch it off and start talking baby talk. It sticks out in our minds what a
sensitive guy he was.

"He went from police officer to daddy to undercover, [changing into]
somebody that none of us would actually recognize."

Russell said the detective was a family man to the core, his desk decorated
with pictures of his three children and wife. And he was excited that he had
just moved into a new house in Baldwin Harbor.

A regular on the NYPD soccer team, his muscular build and towering height
belied his gentle nature.

"He was a presence," Russell said, "he really was. But he was gentle, very
sweet. He laughed a lot. He was the most polite guy you'd ever meet.

"Everything ended with a 'sir' with him - 'No sir, yes sir.' Always a smile
on his face."

In Baldwin Harbor, neighbor Robert Briel, retired from the NYPD, said the
young father had talked to him about the job.

"He was very proud to be what he was, a very proud detective, a very nice
neighbor, a helpful neighbor, a pleasant man and a good father," said Briel.

Briel said funeral arrangements are incomplete. Family members are coming in
from Haiti.

Staff writer Keiko Morris contributed to this story.





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