Deadly New City standoff: Police ID barricaded man

NEW CITY – An angry man armed with a rifle who was barricaded inside a North Little Tor Road house overnight was found dead Monday morning, Clarkstown police said.

He had held off a cadre of police and a SWAT team Sunday after threatening to kill a relative who tried to disarm him, Clarkstown police said. It was unclear how the man died.

Police have not identified the man, but a neighbor said he was Vincent Cordaro, 57. A relative said the man stated he would kill any police officer who intervened and he had fired shots from the house, with one bullet entering a neighboring home, Sgt. Glenn Cummings said. No one was injured.

Cummings said that the man also shot in the direction of police officers.

Cummings described the standoff overnight as dangerous and officers closed the road to traffic and residents. Clarkstown informed residents to stay inside their homes and away from their windows. The police department can use its computer-based "City Watch" reverse 911 system to telephone taped messages to neighborhoods or the entire town.

Police also tried sending in a robot to scout out the house and the man, Cummings said. The robot could not get through the debris and items inside, he said.

The department's SWAT team responded to the neighborhood, dressed in black and armed with high-powered weapons.

The tense situation began about 7:15 p.m. Sunday at 67 N. Little Tor Road, when a woman reported she had been threatened by a family member. She later told police she and the gunman argued and he brandished a shotgun, threatening to kill her and other family members, Cummings said.

She told officers she tried to wrest the gun from him but couldn't, Cummings said. She then quickly left the house, along with other family members and a tenant, he said.

Police blocked off Little Tor Road north at New Hempstead Road and southbound at Phillips Hill Road. The swirling red and blue lights of the police cars reflected against the snow of this residential neighborhood of postwar ranch and split-level housing on wooded lots. The three-bedroom house sits on 0.59 acres and was build in 1960 in a residential section of town with expensive homes.

Donna Eiseman, who lives around the corner, said she'd known Cordero the 22 years she's lived in the neighborhood. She said he was a mechanic who would help people in the neighborhood with their cars, and that he was "a great guy."

"He'd give you the shirt off his back," Eiseman said. "I'm very sad about what happened."

She said the police department did a "fantastic job," and complimented officers for showing restraint and protecting the neighbors.

"I felt secure because of of the police department," she said, "but it was very nerve-wracking listening to the shots."

She said she thought she heard about a dozen shots.

"It's hard to believe there was this type of gunfire in New City," Eiseman said.

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