Steve Neavling

ATF  will honor one of its agents who was killed trying to stop a pharmacy robbery on New Year’s Eve in New York, Newsday reports.

The Aug. 23 ceremony at ATF’s national headquarters in Washington D.C. will celebrate the life of Senior Special Agent John F. Capano. His family will receive the agency’s Medal of Valor.

NYPD Officer Joseph Arbia, an off-duty officer who shot and killed the suspect, will receive the Jake Kuredjian Memorial Award for trying to keep an agent safe, according to the AP.

Capano, 51, was shot by another off-duty cop who mistook the agent for robber.

courtesy of http://wantagh.patch.com

An ATF agent who was killed trying to prevent a pharmacy robbery in his hometown in New York had a portion of a street named after him over the weekend, Newsday reports.

Senior Special Agent John F. Capano Avenue is the new name of Waverly Avenue at Seamans Neck Road where Capano grew up in his childhood home.

Capano, 51, was trying to prevent a robbery at a pharmacy when he and the suspect began grappling over the phone. A retired Nassau police lieutenant fatally shot Capano, thinking he was the robber.

Last week the Nassau County district attorney’s office said it would not file criminal charges against the retired lieutenant because he was trying to defend himself when Capano fired.

John Capano/atf photo

ATF officials are calling the man ultimately responsible for the death of off-duty agent John Capano a “career criminal who chose to resume his life of crime” on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, reports Wantagh-Seaford Patch.

Capano, a 23-year veteran of the ATF and originally from the New York town of Seaford, was fatally shot when he tried to interrupt a robbery at a local pharmacy he had entered to pick up his aging father’s cancer medication. An off-duty police officer came to his rescue, but ended up shooting Capano accidentally.

The lawyer for the off-duty police officer expressed remorse on behalf of his client, Christopher Geraghty, in a letter to the Associated Press. Geraghty shot Capano as Caoano wrestled with the thief, James McGoey, and is “devastated” by what happened, Patch reports.

“Ultimately the responsibility for the tragic events that occurred on December 31, 2011 lies with the career criminal who chose to resume his life of crime,” said Joseph Anarumo, the Bureau’ of ATF’s special agent in charge of the New York field division.

To read more click here.

John Capano/atf photo

A memorial fund has been set up for ATF agent John Capano of New York who was killed New Year’s Eve day while attempting to stop an armed robbery of a pharmacy in Long Island where he had gone to fill a cancer medication for his ailing father.

The primary purpose of the fund is to provide monies for his son’s and daughter’s college education. His son is attending Northeastern University and his daughter is a high school student.

Individual and corporate donations can be made out to Special Agent John Capano Memorial Fund and sent to the Federal Drug Agents Foundation, 380 North Broadway, Suite 203, Jericho, NY 11753. Donations to the fund are tax deductible.

Authorities suspect that Capano was killed by friendly fire from a retired cop who had come to his rescue after he began struggling with the robber.

The funeral is scheduled for Friday at 11 a.m. at the St. William the Abbot Roman Catholic Church in Seaford, N.Y. Attorney Gen. Eric Holder Jr. is scheduled to speak at the funeral.

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

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By Allan Lengel

Sadly, investigators believe the off-duty ATF agent who was shot and killed while struggling with a robbery suspect last Saturday at a Long Island pharmacy, was likely shot by friendly fire from a retired Nassau County police lieutenant, the New York Daily News reported, citing unnamed sources.

The paper reported that agent John Capano, 51, was picking up cancer medicine for his father at Charlie’s Family Pharmacy in Seaford when he ran into a robbery in progress.

It was New Year’s Eve day, and Capano had planned to spend the evening with his wife, two children and father, the Daily News reported. His mother had just died of cancer two weeks before.

FBI and ATF are running ballistics tests, the paper reported, but investigators’ working theory is that Capano was killed by friendly fire.

To read the full story click here.

By Allan Lengel

An off-duty ATF agent was shot and killed Saturday afternoon in Nassau County in Long Island, N.Y. while struggling with a robbery suspect outside a pharmacy where the agent was going to pick up his father’s cancer medication, according to authorities and the Associated Press.

Agent John Capano, a 23-year veteran of ATF, was off duty and in the Seaford, N.Y. shopping center’s parking lot at about 2 p.m. when the suspect entered the pharmacy and robbed it of OxyContin and cash, according to ATF.

Several patrons ran out of the store and pointed out the robbery suspect. ATF said agent Capano immediately confronted the suspect, began struggling with him and attempted to disarm him.

A retired Nassau County police officer and an off-duty New York City police officer who were in a deli next door were also alerted, ATF said.

Both came out of the deli and saw the men struggling and fired, killing the suspect, which AP identified as James McGoey. Agent Capano was also fatally wounded during the confrontation. It was unclear from the ATF press release and media reports as to who actually shot the agent.

Agent Capanois is survived by a wife and two children.

To honor the memory of  Capano, ATF buildings that fly the ATF flag have been authorized to lower the flag to half staff from January 1 to the  day of his interment, from sunrise to sunset.