Jan 30, 2008 8:37 am US/Eastern
Killer Says He Regrets Standoff With Police In '73
NEW YORK (AP) ―
A man seeking parole after more than three decades in prison for killing a police officer during the longest hostage standoff in New York police history told a judge he regretted the 1973 crime, saying he wanted to be seen as more than the sum of his deeds on "one unfortunate day."
"I'm not an animal. Believe me, I regret that day and will regret it the rest of my life. I understand the pain I caused," Shu'aib Raheem said at a hearing Tuesday on whether he would have to register as a sex offender if paroled.
"People know me for who I am, not for what I have done on one unfortunate day," he said.
Raheem, 58, has been imprisoned for more than 33 years for fatally shooting Officer Stephen Gilroy during a derailed robbery that spiraled into a 47-hour siege in January 1973. Some 14 captives were taken captive in a Brooklyn sporting goods store.
The hostages included a boy and a girl younger than 15, leading to the possibility that Raheem would be considered a sex offender for kidnapping minors. The sex offender designation would put Raheem under more scrutiny if he were paroled.
The state Parole Board voted 2-1 in November to free Raheem, initially sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. But the decision is under review after an outcry from Gilroy's family and a police union. Numerous officers attended Tuesday's hearing.
Brooklyn state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gary ruled that Raheem should not have to register as a sex offender, noting that the hearing didn't address the underlying question of whether Raheem should be paroled.
"You could not live long enough, as far as I'm concerned, to make up for what you did," the judge said.
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