On-duty officer kills self in front of gal pal
By JOHN DOYLE, PERRY CHIARAMONTE and CYNTHIA R. FAGEN
Last Updated: 1:29 AM, May 18, 2011
Posted: 1:18 AM, May 18, 2011
A uniformed NYPD cop angry over his girlfriend's Facebook postings -- and scared she'd leave him -- fatally shot himself right in front of the woman on a Manhattan street yesterday, police said.
"I love you," Officer Philip Chlanda, 29, told the woman before shooting himself in the head with his department-issued Glock at around 3 a.m. outside the Murray Hill apartment they shared with his parents, cops said.
His squad car was parked a few feet away.
Chlanda, a four-year-veteran, was working an overnight shift in the 1st Precinct in TriBeCa when he peeled off around 3 a.m. to meet with his gal pal.
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SHOCKING: Cops tape off the scene after a fellow officer killed himself on East 36th Street yesterday.
"He was looking at Facebook to see if she was communicating with someone else," said a police source. "It was an argument."
His partner thought Chlanda was going to get something to eat, but instead he took off from the Erickson Place station house in a marked cruiser.
During the confrontation inside his parents' posh, third-floor apartment, Chlanda got upset when he thought his girlfriend intended to leave him, according to the sources.
He stormed out to the street with his lover giving chase.
As he approached his police cruiser, the shattered officer professed his love, pulled his 9mm service weapon from his holster, and pulled the trigger before the woman could stop him.
She then called 911.
"I heard one shot. Then I heard the sirens. I saw them put him in the ambulance. They said it was a police officer," said a building worker.
Chlanda was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital.
Two postal workers said that on Monday they spotted Chlanda barefoot in his pajama bottoms arguing with the woman outside the building. "It looked like they were breaking up," one of the workers said.
Chlanda and his girlfriend only met a few months ago, and were living together in a room in his parent's apartment at 138 E. 36th St.
His parents, Edward, 72, a former insurance-company president, and Gisela, 63, are highly regarded in local Czech social circles. They are members of Bohemian Benevolent & Literary Association, as well as American Friends of the Czech Republic club.
"It's just a sad and tragic incident," said a source, describing Chlanda's girlfriend as "shocked."
"He had an unblemished record," the source said.
Chlanda, a gun enthusiast, was a member of the Westside Rifle and Pistol Range on West 20th Street and was a well-regarded marksman and a nationally ranked long-rifle expert.
Last year, Chlanda won first place at the range's Phil Chlanda Invitational Light Rifle Competition, which had been named for him because of his shooting prowess.
"Phil would come and really melt into the scene," said a friend. "He was about camaraderie and the sport itself. He loved his .22."
Additional reporting by James Cahalan
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