Cop Shot During Brooklyn Traffic Stop Dies,
Suspects Now Face Murder Charges

Twenty-three-year-old police officer Russel Timoshenko died yesterday at King County Hospital, five days after being shot twice in the face during a Monday traffic stop in Prospect Lefferts Gardens. Doctors took him off life support after finding he had no brain activity yesterday afternoon. KCH director of trauma service and surgical critical care, Dr. Robert Kurtz, was visibly upset as he reported Timoshenko's death. From Newsday:

Kurtz, who choked up, said the case "affected us emotionally as well as professionally."

He said Timoshenko had two gunshot wounds that entered through his face and mouth, cutting across the top of the spinal cord right under the brain.

"From the second those bullets hit, he was unable to breathe and unable to move a muscle in his body," he said, adding that the officer had no oxygen to his brain for 15 to 20 minutes before arriving at the hospital, driven by a 71st Precinct detective.

"The activity in his brain ceased, and that's death in New York State," Kurtz said of his condition then. The family sought second opinions. "The family were desperate. They reached out. This was their only child. And for this mother to have lost her son like that, it brings tears to my eyes," he said.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, "Officer Timoshenko made the ultimate sacrifice with unflinching bravery and dedication to duty. We'll never forget him, and we're more committed than ever to seeing to it that those responsible for this crime are prosecuted to the full extent of the law."

Now the three suspects in the shooting, Dexter Bostic, Robert Ellis, and Lee Woods, face first-degree murder charges. The question remains whether the Brooklyn DA's office will want to cede the case to federal prosecutors so they can pursue the death penalty.

Ellis is being held in a Nassau County Jail, while Bostic and Woods are held at Rikers. Corrections officials are separating the trio and segregating them from the general prison population. A corrections official told Newsday, "We don't want them to have any contact among themselves. We don't know about their gang affiliations and who else might be in the facility that knows them or that they know."

Many police officers, including Timoshenko's partner Herman Yan (Yan was also shot during the traffic stop, but had been released on Tuesday), paid their respects at Timoshenko's hospital room yesterday. The NY Times has a story about the kinship between doctors at Kings County and cops from the 71st and 76th Precincts; Timoshenko and Yan were from the 71st, and Yan told the Times he stopped by KCH at least once a week, "Even a mother that reports their child missing, after we search their building, we’ll call in and say, ‘Sarge, is it O.K. if we swing by the hospital and see if she’s there?’ ”

And Mayor Bloomberg said, "While I can't know the anguish they are going through, I want Russel's parents Leonid and Tatyana to know their son was a hero. It does not provide any consolation, but I am proud of the investigators who worked so swiftly to apprehend those that committed this detestable and cowardly act."

Photograph of the crowded floor at Kings County Hospital where Timoshenko' room was located by Edward Gluck/AP

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on July 15, 2007 10:13 AM

Comments [rss]

guest

even if he was racially profiling, it dont give you the right to just shoot that man in the face

God dont like ugly and this just gone make the white cops harrass us even more than usual, propably kill another unarmed black man or beat the snot out of a 4.2 gpa 16 y.o. student like they did in new orleans

guest

im black, from the hood, and i dont condone this type of behavior, cold blooded murder is wrong. if you on your third strike, why are in a stolen car playing with your life like that homie

then you get caught, you know police gone do random stops , then you murder that man for doing his job, thats not right, i cant condone that

guest

RIP Timoshenko.

Why do y'all always tear apart people with bad grammar? Keep your nose up, snobs.

guest

"Timoshenko's Ghost Seen Chasing & Racial Profiling Cars in Crown Heights"

Really? Who are you people? Who even thinks of this sh*t? Im disgusted...

guest

As the self-anoited leaders of the African-American community, where are Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton publicly rebuking the acts of the three men apprehended in connection with the death of Officer Timoshenko? There silence is deafening. I would like to know if they plan to attend the funeral of the slain officer as I'm sure most civic leaders in the city will do.

guest

Timoshenko's poltergeist seen in Crown Heights racially profiling blacks from the grave and he hasn't been dead a whole 24 hours yet.

That's what got his face blown off! Timoshenko was crooked! Now he's condemned to chase cars like a mangy street dog. Serves him right. ROTFLM(BLACK)AO

Timoshenko's Ghost Seen Chasing & Racial Profiling Cars in Crown Heights

guest

"Freedom to defend yourself? Puleeze!!! If it was so easy to defend yourself with a gun, how come officers keep getting shot, and they have plenty of training!

[21] Posted by: guest | July 16, 2007 2:10 AM "

Because they confront evil. DUH.

guest

Freedom to defend yourself? Puleeze!!! If it was so easy to defend yourself with a gun, how come officers keep getting shot, and they have plenty of training!

guest

It is sad that the life of such a promising and decent young man had to come to such a violent and early end.

Yet another New York victim of the lax gun laws of the state of Virginia...

guest

My dad is a cop, and this has been my worst nightmare ever since I was a little girl.

My heart goes out to Timoshenko's parents. I hope the knowledge that he was doing what he loved might someday be a comfort to them.

The bastards who did this will most certainly burn in hell, and God help me but I hope they fry up here first.

guest

"Chalk up yet another life taken by guns from states with lax gun laws like Virginia and the National Rifle Association's warped view and lobbying money."

Yeah it sucks that some states believe in Freedom to defend yourself and actually imprisons criminals!

Toby von Meistersinger

Chalk up yet another life taken by guns from states with lax gun laws like Virginia and the National Rifle Association's warped view and lobbying money.

Fun fact: Virginia has a National Rifle Association license plate and you can get your very own souvenir version.

guest

Staten Island must have bad Karma points.

guest

Why are black people such evil people?

guest

Why does Karma hate Staten Islanders so much?

hehe.

guest

Hey, karma-d-bag: This is the second time you've made that subject-verb agreement mistake. Does/do is not a simple its/it's mistake of grammar. You're obviously of severely limited intelligence. Do you hate cops so much because you could not scrape together the mental capacity to enter the academy?

guest

Why does Staten Islanders have such bad Karma?

Why do idiot commenters at gothamist.com have such bad grammar?

guest

Why does Staten Islanders have such bad Karma?

guest

Poor kid escaped the Russian Army with his parents just to be shot in the face by some low life niggas in the land of the free.

figures..

guest

HUH?????????

guest

Rethink three strikes law? How about reinstitute the death penalty for 1st degree murder FOR REAL? If they thought that had nothing to lose now, maybe they would have thought that with a real death penalty they should just run away instead of shooting.

Peter

My prediction: Law & Order will have an episode based on this incident. And the shooters will be white.

Serious question: is Dick Wolf's hatred of his own race merely P.C. run amok, or a sign of deeper troubles?

guest

thank you, mihow.

anyway, did anyone see Julia Sweeney at the Athiests convention on CSPAN last night? another cool Athiest is Seth MacFarlane.

mihow

You know, I was thinking about this last night. At least one of the men involved were facing their third strike when they were pulled over in a stolen SUV. One must wonder about the thoughts that go through the mind of someone aware of the fact. Do they think, "Well, what have I got to lose?" And open fire?

I'm not saying what they did was understandable at all. I'm suggesting that we need to rethink this whole 3 strike law. I don't think it's working. I think that sometimes it _might_ just make people act more irrationally than they otherwise would have.