BRIAN ROSS REPORTS
- Like Jay-Z + the Beatles, But Worse
- Update: Help for Homeless Children
- Bush Era, Revised -- and with More Barbeque
- The Tax Woman Cometh
- Paging Mr. Stanford: Antigua Called
- Who Are You Calling Partisan?
- Update: IRS Won't Use Private Debt Collectors
- But Is It Art?
- PMA Scandal a Sore Point for Dems in 2010?
- Down in Flames
- A New Mystery for RNC Chief
- PMA Clients Were Big Givers
- Raided Lobby Firm Still a Force on Capitol Hill
- Stanford Update: Another $143 Mil Found
- Cheney, Hooked on Controversy
TOP BLOTTER CATEGORIES
- Abramoff Lobbying Scandal
- American Al Qaeda
- Avian Flu
- Beirut Hospital Out of Gas
- Cheney
- CIA
- CIA Secret Prisons
- D.C. Madam Affair
- FBI
- Federal Air Marshal Service
- Homeland Security
- Hurricane Katrina
- IRS
- Mark Foley Internet Scandal
- Millionaire Sex Scandal
- Nigerian E-mail Scams
- Norman Hsu, Clinton Fundraiser
- NSA: Wiretapping
- Osama bin Laden
- Payola
- Pharmacy Investigation
- PMA
- Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert
- Stanford
- Steele
- Terror
- Troopergate
- U.K. Airline Terror Plot
- U.K. Bombing Attempts
- Wen Ho Lee
- William Jefferson
- Zarqawi
« Previous | Main | Next »
Cop Shooter 'Loco Larry' Slain in Jail
Email
Print
ShareFebruary 21, 2008 3:34 PM
Larry Davis was a 20-year-old thug known on the street for his temper and his flash when he shot six New York City cops one night in 1986 and then evaded a massive police manhunt for 17 days before surrendering.
He had become a 41-year-old inmate with a discipline problem who was serving 30 to life before he was stabbed to death in a maximum security prison Wednesday night, corrections officials said.
"You knew the guy was going to go that way anyhow. Whether he went to jail, or he got out of jail and joined the circus, he still going to get killed somewhere," Donald O'Sullivan, one of the cops Davis shot, told WABC in New York.
"The guy was a killer, and he killed a lot of people. He killed at least 20 to 23 people. He raped women. He would tie up people, shoot them in the head. Everybody was a shot in the head," said O'Sullivan, now retired.
Dubbed "Loco Larry" on the streets of the Bronx, Davis was Inmate No. 88T2550 at the maximum security Shawangunk Correctional Facility in upstate New York. He died Tuesday night at 7:58 p.m. from wounds inflicted by another inmate armed with a 9.5-inch by 1.25-inch flat metal shank, prison officials said.
On Nov. 19, 1986, Davis, a suspect in a quadruple homicide, gunned down six cops who had cornered him. With a shotgun and a .45 pistol, Davis blasted his way to freedom wounding his hunters in the process.
Police officials called it the worst shooting of police in the history of the city -- they did so in a year when 21 cops were shot, and three were killed.
"I can't say off the top of my head, but I believe this may be the worst shooting in the police department's history," then-Chief of Department Robert J. Johnston told the newspaper I worked for at the time.
Davis, a high school dropout, had flash, said his friends on the street, but before he fled, he told his sister that against the weight of the police, he didn't stand a chance.
"If I'm caught on the street, the police will shoot me," Lewis said her brother told her. "I'll shoot them first. I want to die."
He didn't really mean it. After a 17-day manhunt, Davis spent five hours negotiating with police, confessed he was afraid and surrendered. It was Dec. 6, 1986.
"Inmate Davis was 41 years old and serving a 30-years-to-life sentence out of Bronx County for multiple counts of murder and weapons and one count of attempted robbery. He would have been eligible for parole consideration in 2016," New York State Prison spokesperson, Erik Kriss, said in a statement.
"Inmate Davis was pronounced dead at the facility at 7:58 p.m. He received multiple stab wounds to his head, chest, arms, back and legs." He had allegedly been assaulted by Inmate No. 3B2677, Luis Rosado, who is expected to face criminal charges.
In addition to Det. O'Sullivan, five officers were shot and wounded by Davis. They were: Capt. John J. Ridge, 57; Det. Thomas J. McCarren, 43; Officer John G. O'Hara, 26; Officer Mary E. Buckley, 40; and Sgt. Edward J. Coulter, 44; all recovered from their wounds.
During his 17 days as a fugitive, Davis briefly became something of a folk hero in a racially divided city; a symbol of the anger against a police department perceived as pervasively racist. At trial, Davis was acquitted of murdering the drug dealers. In a separate trial, he was acquitted of attempting to murder the cops -- and three other cops -- despite overwhelming evidence that he did. The verdict sparked angry police protests. He was convicted of weapons charges and had remained in jail ever since. In 1991, he was convicted of a murder.
"When he was on the news this morning, believe me, I didn't cry a tear," O'Sullivan told WABC's Jeff Rossen. "He had a legend, but it was a legend in his own mind. He wasn't a legend to decent people. If other people want to call him a hero, go ahead and call him a hero. Anybody that puts two young babies in front of them and starts shooting a gun and a shotgun; it's hard to call him a hero. And anybody who shoots an officer, the officer's a hero."
This post has been updated.
February 21, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (21)
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
A tragic, wasted life. But it is he who wasted it and it is not someone else's fault and it wasn't society's fault. He made bad choices and he was punished.
Posted by: Sinecure | Feb 21, 2008 4:12:51 PM
Tell you what I would do to Mr Luis Rosado...bigger jail cell, more exercise time in the yard, more phone calls, more TV time, better food, and conjugal visits, and then stretch his sentence out a little bit. Case Closed...NEXT
Posted by: golf shank | Feb 21, 2008 5:31:38 PM
cop killer gets 40 years
grandfather teaches child to steel a purse gets 60 years.
what is wrong with this !!!!!
Posted by: tom50 | Feb 21, 2008 5:59:16 PM
I agree with Mr. (O')Sullivan: anyone who harms an officer proves nothing but that the officer is a hero. I'm not a hero, but I recognize them when I see them. God bless our heroes.
Posted by: anyperson | Feb 22, 2008 12:19:29 AM
Too bad it didn't happen years ago - could've saved taxpayers money and prison officials the headache of housing him.
Posted by: BobC | Feb 22, 2008 9:22:53 AM
As a wife of a cop, I have trouble feeling bad for this guy.
Posted by: Pegster | Feb 22, 2008 9:39:31 AM
To Golf Shank...
"What's wrong with this you asked?"
...the word steal is misspelled.
Posted by: Proofreader | Feb 22, 2008 2:48:42 PM
Well one down Mumia to go. Although Mumia is long overdue. Id say ship Rosado to Mumia's prison and see if he can go double or nothing.
Posted by: Matt | Feb 23, 2008 2:20:07 AM
Must have been some bad cops back then else how can one get acquited of murdering them and the drug dealers. This is a sort of trust it seems that perhaps he was tired of working with the cops and turned against a few of them leaving the ones that knew what was happening to live to tell the story he did not understand fully. Real sad when people fall out of society like he has.
Posted by: MiJonal | Feb 23, 2008 2:26:26 AM
loco Larry was no saint. One reason he was considered a hero in his community is that it was a known fact that the police officers that he shot were dirty and that he was distributing drugs for them. So in other words it was a shoot out between drug dealers.
Posted by: Coop | Feb 24, 2008 8:42:50 PM
larry was a true hero too the black community,rest in peace my brother
Posted by: tiisetso | Feb 26, 2008 7:29:01 AM
Larry Davis stated he was selling drugs for a ring of dirty cops and they ran a crimminal racket. He said they came to kill him and burst into his apartment and started shooting. He said they did not even have a warrant for his arrest. They came to "wack him" for wanting to quit.
He was aquitted because the community knew he was right.
While in prison he said his life was threatened numerous times and said he would be killed while there.
Posted by: Glenn | Feb 26, 2008 8:10:17 PM
SAD, HE COULD HAVE CHANGE AFTER 30 YEAR,perhaps he was tired. He would have been eligible for parole consideration in 2016
Posted by: SAMMIE | Feb 26, 2008 8:36:04 PM
For those 17 days I lived on the run with you. I'll never forget you, Larry.
Posted by: LadyLittle | Feb 27, 2008 10:01:33 AM
Larry Davis was recruited by nyc police at the age of 13 to rob known drug dealers in the bronx. The drugs were then sold the cops would get their cut. Larry finally was tired of robbing and killing for crooked cops. He later told them he did not want to do it any more. The cops told him that he could not, and they would kill him. He was later aquited of charges because he had list of the poice officers he worked for, names, personal address and phone numbers. I am from the bronx.
Posted by: wayne | Mar 4, 2008 6:01:11 PM
LARRY DAVIS A STAND UP MAN THOOSE COPS HE SHOT WHERE ALL CROOKED ONE OF THE OFFICERS EVEN STATED THAT HE WOULD DO LINES OF COCAINE ON THE DASH BOARD OF HIS PATROL CAR.THOOSE COPS ARE COWARDS HIDING BEHIND THE BADGE REST IN PEACE Adam Abdul Hakim, FOR THOOSE READING DONT LET THE MEDIA FOOL YOU FIND OUT THE TRUTH SEEK THE TRUTH DONT GET SUCKERED FOR THE BULL S#!%.
Posted by: mingo | Mar 6, 2008 12:21:57 AM
Isnt it iteresting that Richard Esposito supposedly "REPORTS" on this guys demise but doesnt report the facts.
Wonder if he works for the american government or has contacts in the police force
HOW TYPICAL
HOW AMERICAN
It's good that LARRY still has someone prepared to "REPORT" the facts, seeing he can't
Posted by: iwarhol | Mar 8, 2008 7:20:05 PM
Larry was forced to sell drugs by crooked cops in the Bronx.
All cops are not crooked, but the one's in The Bronx during the time were.
This is nothing but propaganda, tell the whole story.
30 cops show up to question someone without a search warrant. They rush in with guns blazing and then run Larry fights back.
At the time, cops did not even investigate the murders of young black/hispanic men in the Bronx, they has a rubber stamp with "Drug Related" on it. Why were they so concerned in Larry's case that they would not even bother with a search warrant?
Posted by: Paradise Gray | Mar 11, 2008 1:18:26 PM
I think the goofy thing in this discussion is that although there are crooked cops, the fact that he killed other people besides cops says it all. Just because he was a pawn for the cops, and they weren't going to let him quit doesn't make him a saint. At some point in the whole history of Larry's life, he made a choice, and he knew the difference between right and wrong.
Posted by: Mike M | Mar 12, 2008 8:44:14 PM
COOP- How is Larry a hero to the black community. He was a murderer. How is that a hero is it because he killed cops. Did they deserver it, No. So what kind of people did you have to look up to.
Posted by: "G" | Mar 20, 2008 9:03:47 AM
Post a comment
