Sunday, December 11, 2011

Queens, NY: Tax Investigator Fatally Shot by Husband, a Former NYPD Officer

What started as a heated domestic dispute turned deadly Saturday night when a former New York City police officer shot his wife-a state tax investigator–10 times in their Queens apartment, police said.

About 8 hours after the shooting, Clarence Cash walked into a Midtown police station Sunday morning and surrendered, handing over two guns and telling officers he shot his wife, 42-year-old Tracey Young, in their apartment, a law-enforcement official sad. The official said Cash told detectives there were two more guns in the apartment and later confessed to shooting his wife.

Cash, 49, was charged with first-degree murder Sunday afternoon and was waiting to be arraigned in Queens criminal court, officials said. Police said Young, an investigator with the state Office of Tax Enforcement, was shot three times in the face, twice in the right side of back, once in the left breast, twice in right side of abdomen, once in each armpit. She was pronounced dead at the scene in the Briarwood section of Queens on 84th Drive.

A neighbor who was walking his dog told police that Cash and Young came home around 9 p.m., authorities said.

About an hour later, Young called her sister April Young, police said. Young said she and her husband were arguing and that she was coming to April Young’s apartment, police said.

About 10:30 p.m., April Young told police she received a text from her sister saying Cash had hit her, police said. April Young told police she headed for her sister’s apartment and arrived at 10:53 p.m., but no one answered the door.

Neighbors told April Young they had “heard loud banging and arguing,” and several “bangs” that could have been gunshots, police said. She called 911 at 11:09 p.m.

Police arrived to find Tracey Young and 13 9mm shell casings scattered across the eighth-floor apartment.

At 6 a.m. Cash surrendered to police at the NYPD’s Midtown South Precinct and turned over two handguns — a 9mm Glock and a 9mm Sig Sauer.

Cash, 49, retired from the NYPD in 2006, and has been working as a court officer in at Federal Court in Manhattan. He has two prior arrests, both of which are sealed, said a law-enforcement official.

At the luxury eight-story building where the couple lived, a vase of white roses sat outside their top floor apartment, which was still roped off as a crime scene with an officer stationed near the elevator.

Resident Greg Gilarowski, 30, said Young was the president of the building board of directors and recently helped put up an eight-foot Christmas tree in the lobby.

“I don’t think I’ve ever even seen him,” Gilarowski, who moved into the building six months ago, said of Cash. “She was a nice lady.”

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