A day after the shooting that marked parolee Robert Rementaria’s last act on earth, Teri Noble, who lives just paces from where the gunfight erupted, couldn’t get the carnage out of her head.
“It was very scary seeing the blood and the body,” she said, one of several Marine Park residents who voiced their surprise and concern during a Marine Park Civic Association on April 27.
“I feel nervous, especially since it happened during the daytime,” added Noble’s neighbor Joanne Bezner, who admitted that the situation could have been much worse. “Normally at that time of day, kids are on the street. If it wasn’t for the rain, kids would have been out there.”
Residents complained that last Monday’s shooting was a symptom of a larger problem. Crime, particularly burglaries, has been on the rise in the 63rd Precinct, they said.
“The robberies are getting out of control,” resident Jackie Pandolfo, 42, told reporters hours after the gunfight. “We’ve never had this problem. Now you’re afraid to go in your house.”
Cops were still trying to see if Rementaria played a role in the recent upswing in burglaries in the precinct.
It was first thought that Rementaria was the thief in the hardhat seen waving a gun around on East 28th Street between Avenues S and T back on April 12, but police sources say that a second man — another career criminal — had just been arrested for that break-in.
The hope is that the death of Rementaria and the arrest of the second thug will make a dent in the burglary wave that has crashed over the 63rd Precinct. As of April 18, 74 break-ins had taken place in the 63rd Precinct — up from 62 during the same period last year.
That said, Inspector Frank Cangiarella, the commanding officer of the 63rd Precinct, said that Marine Park has been relatively free of burglaries. In the last month, there have been just three.
— with Michele DeMeglio