Murdered April 20, 1972
Ptl. Phillip W. Cardillo
The Harlem Mosque Incident
Deputy Inspector Haugh is holding Det. Randy Jurgensen. He was struck in the head by "airmail." Look at the photo of the cop holding his gun in the air after having just fired it. He is PO Lucian D'alessio of the 28 Anti-Crime team, later killed by a drunk driver.
The "Harlem Mosque Incident" April 14, 1972, was one of the darkest days in the NYPD history. Patrolmen Phil Cardillo and Vito Navarra were riding in 28 sector George. They were the first RMP to respond to a '10-13 on the second floor' at
102 West 116 Street.
After arriving and entering the building, which was a mosque, they questioned about 10 Muslims at the front desk about the call. Suddenly, the Muslims shouted, "Allah Akhbar" more Muslims came from rooms, then the officers were beaten and stomped by numerous black Muslims.
A minute or two later Patrolmen Vic Padilla and Ivan Negron of the 25 pct arrived and when also badly beaten and knocked to the ground. Navarra was able to crawl to the front door which was then slammed shut by the Muslims. He told the responding cops, that Cardillo was still inside. Thru a small window in the front door Cops could see Cardillo on the floor being kicked by the surrounding mob. Padilla was down and being stomped and his gun was taken. Ptl. Negron was being beaten and he was fighting off numerous hands that were attempting to rip the gun from his holster.
One of the Muslims, six foot four and 260 pounds, Louis 17X Dupree grabbed Cardillos gun, ripped it from the holster and fired a round into Cardillo. The cops at the front door smashed the glass and afraid of hitting the fallen cops, fired five rounds over the heads of the Muslims. Padilla, seeing Louis Dupree running with the gun, fired three rounds. More 10-13's are called.
The cops broke in the front door. The seventeen Muslims ran to the basement. Cops flooded through the door and chased the fleeing Muslims down the stairs. The cops had them against the wall and began searching for the missing guns. Cardillo is removed to St. Lukes hospital. At the same time outside the mosque, a large crowd of about a thousand locals, begin to riot.
Cars were overturned, bricks are coming of the roofs, and cops and media people are being assaulted. While this is going on, Deputy Chief Inspector William Knapp arrives, and went into the basement and spoke with Inspector John Haugh the 28 pct CO. Insp. Haugh had responded to the
10-13. He told the cops to guard the prisoners.
Knapp called Commissioner Pat Murphy and advised him of the turmoil inside and outside the mosque. While Knapp is talking on the phone, he heard shouting. He turned and saw Louis Farrakhan and Charlie Rangel leading a large group of Muslims down the basement stairs. Farrakhan is shouting that all the cops must leave the temple. Knapp tells Haugh to move to the street.
Now Deputy Commissioner Ben Ward arrives, with Farrakhan at his side, he shouts to the superior officers that the cops immediately leave the mosque. The crime scene was abandoned. Farrakhan and Rangel are shouting to the superior officers "if you stay, there is nothing we can do to protect you. You'll be overrun. There'll be rioting. People may be killed." Farrakhan and Rangel 'promise' that the prisoners would come to the24 pct. At five o'clock to be questioned. Do you think anyone showed up? Phil Cardillo died six days later. Mayor John Lindsay and Commissioner Pat Murphy did NOT attend the funeral.
A few days after Cardillo was buried. Deputy Commissioner Ben Ward was quoted in the Amsterdam news: I believe that my investigation has pointed out, at east to my satisfaction, that there were some errors made on the part of the police. For the errors, and for the consequence of those errors, I apologize to minister Farrakhan.""It was a bogus cry for help that would spark the slaying of a patrol cop and mark a period of political strife pitting City Hall against rank-and-file cops for years." The call for help was received by police operators on the fourth floor of police headquarters, April 14, 1972. "I am Detective Thomas of the 28th Precinct", he said. "There is a patrolman in trouble on the second floor of the mosque," the caller said breathlessly before hanging up.
It was at 11:41 on that hazy morning that Patrolman Phil Cardillo was driving a patrol car along Manhattan Avenue near West 112th Street, with his partner, Patrolman Vito Navarra, in the recorders seat beside him. Within minutes they were heading to the scene of the 10-13 call.
As reported in the Daily News, they heard a commotion on the second floor and made their way up the stairs - only to be jumped by militant Muslims who beat and stomped the two uniformed officers.
Two other cops, Victor Padilla and Ivan Negron, responded. Once inside, they were outnumbered and attacked.
In the confusion, two of the cops' guns were snatched as attackers yelled, "Die, pig!"
Before the day was over, Cardillo was shot point-blank in the chest with his own weapon and would later die. Five other cops were gravely wounded.
The scene immediately erupted, as responding officers were forced out of the building, the crime scene compromised, and suspects that were being held were ordered released by police brass on the scene.
While most people present at the scene, and the aftermath, would clearly describe the outbreak as a riot, this was something that city leaders were not willing to do. With Lindsay campaigning for president, a riot was inconceivable.
At St. Luke’s Hospital, Det. Randy Jurgensen met Commissioner Murphy, who had gone there to visit the injured officer. “How is it there” the PC asked? When Jurgensen replied that there were 10-13’s being called, and people in the streets turning over patrol cars, the PC didn’t seem to like the answer. “We have been assured by Commissioner (he was wrong, it was Inspector) Knapp that everything is under control”, Murphy replied, as he walked away from the officers.
When Mayor John Lindsay met up with Deputy Commissioner Robert Daley at St. Luke’s Hospital, Daley told him “It certainly was delicate there. It came close to a riot. So close.” Daley had mentioned the magic word, that caused Lindsay to go off on him.
He snapped at Daley, “Riot? What do you mean, riot. There can’t be any riot. There won’t be any riot. It never came close to a riot. How can you say such a thing?” Keep in mind that neither Murphy or Lindsay ever went to the scene. Lindsay’s major claim to the presidency was that there had been no riots and burnings in the biggest city in the nation during his administration, while such actions had taken place in Detroit, Washington, Chicago, Watts and Cleveland. The last thing he wanted to hear from anyone that there was a riot going on!
Nevertheless, Daley persisted. “I’ve been around riots before”, Daley maintained. “This was as close to one as I’ve ever seen”. When Lindsay pressed him on how many people were in the street, Daley answered “at least twelve hundred people in the street”.
Lindsay’s response, “What’s a thousand people? Twelve hundred people? You can’t have a riot with a thousand people or twelve hundred people”, ended any further discussion on the topic.
It is noted, quite explicitly in Grosso's book, that the police commissioner chose not to respond to the scene. His deputy commissioner of community affairs, Ben Ward, did respond and, after meeting with Minister Farrakhan and Congressman Rangel, ordered that the suspects being held b y the police be released. In a pact that Ward worked out with Farrakhan and Rangel, those that were being held would surrender to the stationhouse on their own the next day!
They are still waiting for that surrender to take place today!
Six days after he was shot, Phil Cardillo died. Commissioner Murphy was notified, and told his DCPI, Robert Daley, that he would not be going to the hospital. He said he didn't feel well.
The biggest area of contention was the department’s – and the city’s – failure to acknowledge that Ptl. Phil Cardillo died while doing what he was supposed to be doing. It was this failure to support the officers actions that resulted in the Chief Of Detectives, Albert Seedman, to retire two weeks later, and the precinct commander, Inspector Haugh, to do so as well. Inspector Haugh could not believe that the department was not openly backing Cardillo, and for that he kept his word to his officers – he resigned.
Thirty-two years later, the slaying of Cardillo is still unsolved.
The Daily News further noted that there is one retired NYPD Detective, Randy Jurgensen, who remains committed to bringing Cardillo's killer to justice. He was one of the dozens of cops who went to the mosque that dark day more than three decades ago.
"Cardillo went into the ground, and for the first time ever, the mayor [John Lindsay] and the [police] commissioner [Patrick Murphy] did not go to the funeral. It was a horrifying breach of tradition," Jurgensen said. "That's the day City Hall lost the rank and file."
The incident also widened the racial divide in the city. It came at a time when the Black Liberation Army was randomly shooting cops dead - killing four and wounding two by the time Cardillo was killed.
The incident also was a blot on the career of Benjamin Ward, who later became the NYPD's first black commissioner. As the deputy commissioner of community affairs, he ordered white cops to leave the mosque - without securing a crime scene and without Cardillo's body.
Ward was criticized for appeasing Farrakhan, who would go on to lead the Nation of Islam. Months later, Jurgensen became the lead investigator on the case. He spent two years on the run protecting a black militant Muslim who witnessed the cop beatings. That witness, Foster XX Thomas, would testify against mosque member Lewis 17X Dupree. Dupree was acquitted.
"There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Cardillo was shot by Louis 17X Dupree. The police could not present a case with evidence from a crime scene that never existed. The NYPD never allowed a crime scene to be set up," Jurgensen said.
"Two years after the shooting, I went into that mosque and dug three bullets out of a wall there," Jurgensen said. "That should have been removed the day of the shooting if there was a crime scene.
"For this case," he added, "justice died the day Phil Cardillo died."
