4 arrested in Bellmore home invasion case
It took nearly four hours for calm to return to Nassau's South Shore from Levittown to Merrick, where 27 schools were locked down while the men were sought. Officers found the last suspect in a taxi on the Southern State Parkway, ending the lockdowns.
Six people were hospitalized: three of five victims from the home invasion; two suspects -- one shot in the leg by police -- and an officer who hurt his ankle during the chase. Police described the victims' injuries as chest pains for a man in his 50s, and undisclosed "pain" for a woman in her 40s and another person.
"It was pandemonium," said John DiGangi, 46, who lives near Merrick elementary school, where police fired shots and one of the suspects was caught after his getaway car was shot at and forced to the side of the road. "Cops were walking the streets with big guns."
Police received a panicked call shortly after 9 a.m. from a man who returned to his Bellmore Avenue home to find armed robbers leaving -- three had knives, the other a gun.
The attackers, said one victim, roused him awake with a knife in his face, tied him up with a cellphone charger and ransacked his room seeking cash. Police did not confirm his account, nor release a motive. The victims said the men took thousands of dollars.
"It's too early to tell whether they were targeted, or if it was random," said Nassau Police Det. Lt. Kevin Smith, a department spokesman.
The victim, Ghulam Sumra, said he lives in the home's basement, and his brother, sister-in-law, their son and a family friend live upstairs.
" 'Don't move, I will kill you,' " Sumra, 63, said the attacker told him.
Surprising the attackers
His nephew, Haris Sumra, arrived home about 8:30 a.m. as the robbers were preparing to leave. One man grabbed his shirt but he managed to get away and call police.
Inside the house, he found his parents and a family friend bound and gagged in the master bedroom.
His father, Arshad Sumra, and the friend, identified only as Shafiq, had cloths shoved in their mouths and his mother, Shabnam Sumra, had a rope tied across her mouth. Her nose was bleeding.
The hands of all three were bound behind their backs, and their legs were tied.
By then the men had taken off.
Leaving in a white Ford Crown Victoria with tinted windows, the suspects were first tailed by a neighbor, described by witnesses as a New York City firefighter.
A chase and firefights
Nassau police then took over, stopping the car at Babylon Turnpike and Merrick Road. The suspects got out, but two ran off, as the others climbed back in the car and accelerated, Smith said.
"Fearing for their lives," officers fired on the car, he said, striking the driver in the leg. He did not say if any of the suspects also fired. As of early afternoon, a gun had not been recovered.
One of the men who ran was caught immediately behind a home on Babylon Road, near Lakeside Elementary School. The other ran about a block, and was found in the yard of a home on Lindenmere Drive.
Margaret Maher, 52, was leaving her Babylon Road home when she heard four gunshots. She turned to see an officer chasing a man on Merrick Road.
"I panicked," she recalled. "I shut the car and ran right into the house. I was scared."
Residents described a swarming police presence for hours, with police dogs scouring properties, supported by tactical officers with bullet-proof vests and rifles, and helicopters above.
"I was amazed how quickly they all got there," said Maher of police. "They were really right on it."
Meanwhile, at least 27 schools were locked down: 10 in Levittown, five in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School district, four in Seaford and five in Wantagh.Police continued to follow the vehicle, as another suspect jumped out near Sunrise Highway. The car finally stopped about 3 miles east, in front of a Wantagh car dealership, from where the wounded driver was taken to hospital under arrest.
"It was like you see on television," said Geoff Rice, a salesman at Merrick Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep. "With police, their guns drawn, dragging a guy out of the car."
While police were searching for the final suspect, he was at a local bar. The manager of Shooters Tiki Bar and Sports Grill on Wantagh Avenue near the train station said the man he later learned was one of the suspects walked in and went to the bar.
"He just came in and asked for a Corona," said the manager, who did not want to be named. "He looked like any customer. We didn't know anything was going on."
Although the sports bar is equipped with 24 televisions, the manager said, they do not have cable and none of the stations on at that time mentioned the chase.The man, who was sitting at the bar, asked the bartender to call him a cab, the manager said. When a taxi from the Long Island Yellow Cab arrived, he left without incident. "I just can't believe it all happened," he said.
Smith released neither the names of the victims, nor the suspects, who he said were between 29 and 50 years old.
Shuja Bhatti, Sumra's brother-in-law, came to the Bellmore home yesterday to check in after the ordeal. He said he believed they were targeted, but did not say why. About two weeks ago, a relative there mentioned that he noticed cars across the street that appeared to be watching.
"It seems planned to me,"
Posted Tuesday, September 20, 2011
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