Community Stunned by 2 Armed Standoffs in 2 Days

“What’s going on around here?”

That was the question repeated on Main Street in Nanuet all morning and part of the afternoon as a section of downtown was closed off Friday because of an armed standoff – the second one in Clarkstown in less than 10 hours.

As local business owners and Nanuet residents watched nearby police try to negotiate a peaceful end to the drama, they also stood puzzled that the same community could be held hostage by two similar incidents in such a short time.

“This whole thing is very strange and concerning,” said Jerry Nejman of New City, owner of Blinds Unlimited at 196 Main St., Nanuet, located just a few doors down from the apartment building at 205 Main St. that was the scene of Friday’s 7 ½-hour standoff. “What are the chances this happens twice in two days?”

Nejman was one of many business owners on a stretch of Main Street from Prospect Street to Church Street in downtown Nanuet who could not get to their businesses because of the standoff that started about 6:30 a.m. The crisis ended around 2 p.m. when Clarkstown police revealed they had discovered the body of 52-year-old Kevin Dowling in the bedroom of his apartment.

Dowling, a longtime Nanuet resident who was facing eviction on Friday, had told a friend early Friday morning that he had been drinking and that he was going to take his own life. Police said that after a brief telephone conversation with Dowling, they could not get through to him again.

Clarkstown Det. Sgt. Timothy O’Neill said the standoff developed and the section of Main Street was closed off as a precaution because investigators learned that Dowling was known to have guns in his second-floor apartment and that he even slept with guns in his bed. Dowling was discovered dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest when Clarkstown police entered his apartment around 1:30 p.m.

O’Neill said a rifle was found next to the body, and on a nightstand next to Dowling’s bed was an eviction notice — the unemployed house painter was scheduled to be evicted from his apartment at 9 a.m.

During the standoff, police tried to reach Dowling by telephone and used a loudspeaker as well. Police tried a “flash/bang” grenade to scare Dowling out of the apartment and then fired pepper spray canisters into the apartment.

O’Neill said a police were able to place a camera in the apartment, but could not detect any movement. Without seeing Dowling, police then decided to enter the apartment and conduct a search that took about 25 minutes — leading to the discovery of the body.

Friends of Dowling and residents of the same apartment building said Dowling had faced daily struggles because of a disability that made it difficult for him to walk. Friends said Dowling, who used a cane, often needed 20 minutes to climb the steps leading to his apartment and that they had even helped him by carrying Dowling up the stairs at times.

Police said that only contact they had with him previously involved a minor harassment incident.

Nejman, in business for 23 years, said he knew of Dowling and knows other residents of the apartment building as neighbors, and that the neighborhood is generally a quiet one with few problems.

The standoff led police to evacuate residents of the apartment building, with a Clarkstown Mini-Trans bus parked on Main Street used as a temporary shelter for the residents so they could stay out of the heavy rains that poured throughout the morning and early afternoon.

The evacuated residents and local business owners watched the standoff from about a block away, where Martio’s Pizza at 171 Main St. became a hub of activities and a staging point for the media to cover the breaking story.

For Nejman, he was hoping for a peaceful ending to the standoff. But he was also hoping for a quick ending so he could get to his business and make calls to clients with whom he had made appointments for Friday.

“All my numbers and contacts are in the store,” said Nejman.

The wife of one store owner had rushed to the scene of the standoff because she had been unable to get through to her husband’s jewelry store in downtown Nanuet. She feared the police SWAT team and its armored vehicle were on Main Street because of an incident at the store.

The incident in downtown Nanuet also led to the decision by the Nanuet school district to put its schools in a “lockdown” condition to ensure the safety of students. However, police said that during the incident there was never a direct threat made by Dowling against anyone other than himself.

O’Neill said the decision to close the section of Main Street in Nanuet Friday was a standard procedure. However, O’Neill said the need for such precautions was reinforced by Thursday’s incident at 16 Ludvigh Road in nearby Bardonia, where a 26-year-old man fired a shot at police during a five-hour standoff.

The Bardonia incident ended when Francis Bifulco surrendered to police at about 9:25 p.m. Thursday outside his parents’ home. No one was injured in the Bardonia standoff, which involved the shut down of a section of Ludvigh Road and diverting traffic around the busy street that serves as a popular crosstown link from Route 304 in Bardonia to Middletown Road in Nanuet.

Police said Bifulco underwent a medical evaluation at Nyack Hospital and is expected to spend at least a week undergoing psychological evaluation at the Dr. Robert L. Yeager County Health Complex in Pomona. Police said their investigation of the incident involving Bifulco is continuing and no charges have been filed against him yet.

As Clarkstown police negotiators and SWAT team members were packing up their gear at the end of Friday’s standoff, O’Neill said that most of the officers involved with that incident were also involved with Thursday’s standoff.

“They have been through a lot in two days,” O’Neill said.

The Nanuet incident also came on the final day on the job for Clarkstown police Chief Peter Noonan, who is retiring. Capt. Michael Sullivan has been named the town’s new chief and is set to be sworn in at a March 15 ceremony at Town Hall in New City.

Friday’s standoff also came at the height of the morning commuter rush in Nanuet, where the train station is just a block west of Main Street on Prospect Street. Traffic was diverted around Main Street at Prospect Street and Church Street until about 3:30 p.m., when crime scene investigators completed their work at 205 Main St.

O'Neill said there were no connections between the incidents Thursday and Friday.