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  Brooklyn Patrol Shot

By Reuven Blau

September 3, 2010

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/klyn_patrol_shot_0hNu6RCgtqft4Q2YbwptTN

Four members of a Jewish volunteer patrol were shot during a tussle with a suspected pervert in Brooklyn last night, police said.

"I tackled him and as we were falling to the ground, he started shooting all over the place," said Motty Perl, a member of the unarmed Shomrim security patrol who was shot in the left hand and shoulder.

"I thought it was a BB gun. I didn't think the gun was real."

Perl, 28, and three other Shomrim members were taken to Lutheran Hospital and were expected to survive, cops said.

Suspected shooter David Flores, 33, accidentally shot himself in the left arm when he let loose his barrage and was in police custody, NYPD sources said.

"It was like a scene out of the movies. He kept on shooting. He was on the floor," said Jacob Daskel, a Shomrim member who was not hurt.

"We were grabbing his hand, holding it down,"

The suspect had previously been arrested nine times -- including once for lewdness and twice for robbery, said NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, who came to the hospital to thank Shomrim members for "the service they provide."

He said new charges could include attempted murder as well as public lewdness.

The violence erupted at about 7:45 p.m. near 46th Street and Tenth Avenue in Borough Park when members of the patrol were alerted to the presence of the suspected perv driving in the area, sources said.

Flores is being investigated for allegedly masturbating in front of children at 59th Street and 13th Avenue last week, and on Tenth Avenue earlier yesterday.

The streets last night were flooded with as many as 200 children participating in a celebration for a new Torah.

"The hot line got a call that we had a sexual predator that had been spotted before driving in the area in a silver Hyundai," said Shomrim coordinator Shaya Stein, 39.

Shomrim members confronted Flores when he got stuck in traffic -- and he jumped from his car with a gun, sources said.

"I got there and they were already struggling. I just tried to kick away the gun," said Abraham David Kastow, one of the founders of the patrol.

Kastow, 44, was struck in the shoulder and burned his palm grabbing the barrel of the gun while wrestling it from Flores.

The married dad has the most collars of any member in the 100-person unit, which works with the NYPD.

In addition to Perl and Kastow, also shot were Yoel Klein and Motty Broner.

Klein bore the brunt of the gunfire, getting hit in the abdomen, back and torso.

Broner was struck in the neck, with the bullet passing through from left to right.

While Klein lay badly wounded, the other three kept charging Flores, said Shomrim coordinator Sam Follman, who also assisted in the takedown.

"It was scary. I had never been involved in a gun incident before," he said.

Klein was in serious but stable condition.

"They're just incredibly, incredibly lucky. It's mind-boggling when you think of it," Assemblyman Dov Hikind said at the hospital.

 
 

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