The ex-con shot and killed Thursday after he pulled a gun on two undercover cops was an unmedicated schizophrenic, according to his aunt, who says carrying firearms “was part of his disease.” "It was his paranoia," she explained; the gallon-sized bag of marijuana found in his backpack—along with two wallets (not his) and a second weapon—probably didn’t help with that. Meanwhile, police chief Ray Kelly praised the female NYPD officer who jumped from the passenger seat to intervene as Michael Romero struggled with her partner, saying she acted “fast, courageously and professionally.” more ›

Plainclothes police officers investigating a string of robberies in Sunset Park fatally shot a man around 2:30 p.m. yesterday by Greenwood Cemetery. The detectives spotted Michael Romero, 32, loitering on a quiet stretch of 5th Avenue and, believing he matched the description of a robbery suspect, pulled up to him in their unmarked car. After beckoning Romero over to the vehicle and asking to see his ID, he said, "You want to see my ID? Here's my ID," and produced a loaded .357-caliber revolver, presenting it to Officer Sean Kelleher, who was behind the wheel. more ›

With space at Brooklyn's historic Green-Wood Cemetery at a premium these days, the Times tracks down the one man perhaps most responsible for the few remaining plots as they begin to expire. 54-year-old Lithuanian immigrant Kestutis Demereckas (known as Kestas) is Green-Wood's sole groundskeeper-turned-engineer, who will know for certain when the last body can be buried there, saying that after he is gone there will be no room, even for "Mr. Obama." He has been finding room for new bodies where there appeared to be none for two decades and tells the paper, “Sometimes I work three or four days, only to find no room. Nobody thought, ‘Someday Kestas will come looking for graves.’ ” More than half of Green-Wood's bodies date back over a century; these days plots where bodies are generally stacked on top of one another can fetch up to $60,000 for a family of nine. Kestas is exactly the kind of icy yet welcoming figure you'd hope for at a graveyard—he openly shares tales of his wife's desire to be buried in his workplace when she had a fatal illness (she survived) and the time he came across "The Hill of Graves" to wonder, "‘Why are these lots so small?’ And I find out. Babies.” more ›

Also this week:

• The King of Pop, Michael Jackson died at age 50
• JetBlue announced a live music series at their new T5 terminal
• We interviewed Dr. Dog (who play a free Celebrate Brooklyn! show tonight)
• We also talked to Thurston Moore
• Lou Reed got angry
• Sound Fix will be moving and bringing back live music (but not with the alcohol)
• Nightlife apparently needs to be saved more ›