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A DAY IN BROOKLYN
Today was my last day working out of the Queens Office. On Monday, I
will be back in the main office in Melville, working for the Long Island
edition of Newsday. I have mixed feelings about it. On Monday I would
be back to shooting head shots and real estate; perp walks and business
page heads. Not that I didn't get a share of that in Queens, but the Queens
paper has to compete head to head with the NY Daily News and the NY Post
and to some extent, the NY Times. On Long Island, it's our turf, with
little competition from print media. In Queens, they have a very small
staff and they choose what they cover with a very discriminating eye.
And, almost everything I cover gets used in the paper. Oh, sure, we still
have to shoot biz pages and real estate, but we get to cover some nice
features and we do a lot more news stories. If Mayor Giuliani isn't sticking
his foot in his mouth over some cop brutality issue, he is making headlines
with his prostate cancer. Or another limo driver is found dead. Last time
I wrote about that it was "A Day In The Bronx." Today it is "A Day In
Brooklyn."
I have to leave my apartment in Suffolk County a lot earlier to get to
work in Queens than when I work on Long Island. However, this week, because
of Spring vacation, the schools are closed and thousands of teachers and
college students are off the roads and traffic moves well, for a change.
I left at 6:45 AM instead of 6:15 and I heard on the radio news that another
limo driver was found dead in his car on a Brooklyn street at 4 AM. As
I was listening, my pager started tickling my hip. It was Bob on the Long
Island Photo Desk.
"Go to Elton Street
in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn. Limo driver dead."
I called him on our 2-way radio to tell him that I received his page.
He spared me having to pull off of the parkway to look at my map by telling
me what exit I need to get off and what roads I needed to take to get
to the crime scene. I made good time, thanks to his directions, and got
there before 7:30 AM. It was a gray day, threatening rain, but nowhere
near as cold as it was in the Bronx a couple of weeks ago. I found a place
to park and walked up to the police tape that quarantined a block of Elton
St. There were a bunch of tv cameras set up on sticks and a couple of
still guys already there.
| The limo was sitting in the middle of the street, half
way down the block, surrounded by detectives. My 200mm wouldn't quite
do it, even though it became a 300mm when I put it on my new Nikon
D-1 digital. (The CCD, which gathers the light in place of film, is
smaller than a 35mm film frame, thereby making the lens longer in
focal length by a factor of about 1.5.) I returned to my car to get
my 300mm which became a 450mm. Now I was able to get some detail.
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Detectives stand near the limosine on Elton St. in Brooklyn where
Saro M. Lopez became the 9th livery driver to be killed.©2000Newsday
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| The body had long since been removed. We all waited
to be allowed closer to the scene to get a better angle on the action,
but a NY City PD tow truck drove up and removed the limo before any
permission was forthcoming. But, before I could get any shots of the
limo on the hook, my radio went off and I was told to go to the facility,
a mile away, where the limo service was headquartered. |
Limo drivers in the drivers lounge at the Livonia Car Service talk
about the death of one of their own. Saro M. Lopez became the 9th
limo driver murdered. He was found in his limo on Elton St. in Brooklyn,
this morning.©2000Newsday
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| I had trouble getting near the place because limo drivers
from all over Brooklyn were gathering there. The road in front was
blocked by their Lincoln Town Cars. There were crowds of distraught
and agitated drivers massed on the sidewalk, all gesturing and speaking
in rapid Spanish. They were frightened and angry and feeling very
helpless in the face of this epidemic that was decimating their ranks.
I photographed them outside, speaking in tight little groups. And
then they started bringing memorial candles and the front of the building
became a shrine. Much like the one I photographed in the Bronx, a
few weeks ago. I went inside and photographed another group of drivers
around the pool table in the drivers lounge. |
Limo driver Jimmy Negron places memorial candles on the window ledge
of the Livonia Car Service in honor of one of their own who became
the 9th limo driver to be killed. Saro M. Lopez was found shot to
death on Elton St. in Brooklyn, this morning.©2000 Newsday
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It was sometime, just before 1 PM when I got the ok to bring my
images back to the Queens office. I couldn't believe how tired I
felt. I had been on my feet since 7:15 AM. And, my shoulder hurt
from the weight of the camera bag. It's times like this that I feel
my age. But, I reflected on the photos that I had made and I got
a warm and fuzzy feeling, in spite of the tragic nature of this
story, that I had done a good job.
I felt like a news photographer, again. And that feels good.
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Limo driver Librado Batista displays a flyer being handed out to
the drivers of the Livonia Cat Service whose fellow driver, Saro.
M. Lopez became the 9th limo driver to be murdered. He was found
dead in his car on Elton St. in Brooklyn. ©2000 Newsday
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