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Posted by: kwflatbed

BY NANCY DILLON, TAMER EL-GHOBASHY and ROBERT F. MOORE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS


Victim Steven Vitale

A retired NYPD cop who tossed back beers as police negotiated his surrender on Staten Island early yesterday was charged with murder in the senseless shooting of a fellow retired officer.

The victim, ex-Port Authority cop Steven Vitale, 55, of Staten Island, was remembered as a Vietnam vet, a father of three daughters and a fearless first responder who helped rescue dozens of people from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

"He was a hero in war," said his brother-in-law Brian Eilerman, 47. "He was a hero as a police officer. He was our hero."

Allen Lau, 46, who left the NYPD last year, became enraged on the Staten Island Expressway about 6:30 p.m. Monday when Vitale supposedly cut him off, a law enforcement source said. Lau tailgated Vitale and his wife, Karen, and waved a gun at them before both vehicles exited onto Victory Blvd.

They stopped at a strip mall on Richmond Hill Road, and Lau allegedly fired as many as eight shots, hitting Vitale four times, as he and his wife of 19 years stepped out of their SUV.

The Brooklyn native was pronounced dead at Staten Island University Hospital North.

Eilerman said of his sister Karen, "She's pretty out of it. She was almost killed herself."

Vitale's black Labrador retriever, a bomb-sniffing dog named Philly, was shot in the left ear during the attack, opening up a quarter-sized wound, said Dr. Jonathan Trail, who treated the 4-year-old pooch at the Veterinary Emergency Center.

"They were inseparable," neighbor Joyce Gega, 46, said of Vitale and the specially trained dog from Newfoundland. "That was his partner. That was his buddy."

Lau surrendered about 3 a.m. after a six-hour standoff at his Travis Ave. home in which he continued to down beers, cops said. He was taken to Staten Island University North for treatment of a head injury after an alcohol-induced fall.

At some point, Lau wailed, "I didn't do anything wrong."

Authorities expected Lau, a divorced father of two teenage girls, to be arraigned today on murder, attempted murder, reckless endangerment and weapons charges.

Vitale retired from the Port Authority police after 22 years on the job. He started its emergency services unit and the torch run, which benefits the Special Olympics. He was awarded the Medal of Valor after the 1993 twin towers attack.

"The senseless death of Officer Vitale is a terrible loss for the entire New York and New Jersey region," said Port Authority Chairman Anthony Coscia.

At the time of his death, Vitale headed the K-9 division of Manhattan-based GSS Security Services, which has provided security at cruise ship ports, for executives and at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.

GSS officials remembered him as a "beloved friend and colleague."

Lau, who sources said owned more than a dozen guns, was considered more of an oddball than a danger, neighbors said. Police weren't aware of any mental health issues.



Lau spent 20 years with the NYPD, a career that included a justified fatal shooting of a burglary suspect in 1991, near E. 51st St. He shot the suspect six times.

With Jonathan Lemire, Tony Sclafani and Tanyanika Samuels

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