Near the home of ATF Agent Joseph Capano, police are standing guard as family and friends with heavy hearts mourn an unexplainable loss.
Through her grief, his wife Dori released a statement to Newsday: "He was unlike anybody I ever met or ever will meet," she said. "I was immediately swept off my feet, and taken in by his charm."
Family members tell Eyewitness News they harbor no ill will toward the retired cop who shot and killed the federal agent, mistaking him for the accomplice of James McGoey, the career criminal who'd come to rob the neighborhood drug store of pain pills.
And now, Eyewitness News has learned new information about McGoey, who at 43 had spent nearly half his adult life in state prison for robbery.
He served one term upstate from 1991 to 2000.
After just over a year of freedom, he was convicted again, and spent another decade in Attica.
He was released this past August, but not before completing therapy for anger management and alcohol and substance abuse.
Still just over four months later, there he was, allegedly robbing a drug store of prescription pills.
"This kind of thing is a wakeup call for all folks who are suffering with addiction," said Dr. Jeffrey Reynolds, of the Long Island Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence.
Dr. Jeffrey Reynolds runs the Long Island Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence.
He says it's no surprise McGoey fell off the wagon and reverted to violence.
With increasing demand for addiction treatment, and declining budgets to pay for it, the cycle of violence will likely only get worse.
"Most of our folks when they see something like this happen are scared to death that at some point in time they'll do something life changing that they're going to regret," Dr. Reynolds said.
The funeral for Capano will be 11 a.m. Friday at St. William The Abbot R.C. Church in Seaford. Burial will follow at St. Charles Cemetery in East Farmingdale.
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Some information from The Associated Press
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