Nakwon Foxworth, the perpetrator in the Easter 2012 shooting of Detectives Michael Keenan and Kenneth Alaya, P.O. Matthew Granahan, and Captain Alfonso Pizzano of ESU, was sentenced May 21, 2015 to 110 years in prison by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Neil Firetog. In April, Foxworth was found guilty of Aggravated Assault on a P.O., Attempted Aggravated Assault, Menacing, and Criminal Possession of a Weapon. The DEA thanks all those who worked on this case.
Here’s the back story from the May 2012 Detectives of the Month Story
At approximately 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 7, 2012, 33-year-old Nakwon Foxworth, a hot-headed career criminal and ex-con, returned to his Nostrand Avenue apartment building in the Sheepshead Bay area of Brooklyn, along with his pregnant girlfriend, Jessica Hickling, and their four-month-old baby. They wanted to use the service entrance ramp to wheel the baby’s stroller into the building, but the passageway was partially blocked by a moving company holding the door open with a barrel while they delivered furniture. The minor inconvenience loomed large to the impetuously violent Foxworth, who started banging the baby stroller into the barrel while his girlfriend screamed at him to stop. Foxworth pulled out a gun and started waving it at the movers. One of the workers ran to his truck to call 9-1-1. Foxworth followed, but then returned, threw his gun in the stroller and forced the woman and baby upstairs.
Cops from the 61 Precinct responded, and then called in an Emergency Services team. Because of the late night timing and the change of tours, the respondents included Detectives Michael Keenan and Kenneth Ayala of Truck #6, Detectives Joseph Penny, Timothy Murphy, and P.O. Matthew Granahan of Truck #7. They were under the supervision of Captain Alfonso Pizzano and Sgt. Frank Ferrara of Truck #9.
When ESU arrived, Foxworth was barricaded in his sixth-floor apartment with Hickling and the baby as hostages. The team banged on the door, watched through the peep hole, told the occupants to consider the child, and announced they were not going away. But no one answered. Finally, around 12:30 a.m., the apartment door swung open. With Det. Ayala in the lead holding the team’s bunker, the Officers quickly shielded Hickling and the infant so they could escape from the apartment.
The cops were barely over the front door saddle when Foxworth appeared and suddenly opened fire with a 9mm Browning semi-automatic handgun: part of his arsenal of illegal firearms. He purposely aimed below the three-foot shield and squeezed off 12 shots from no more than 10-feet away. Det. Keenan was struck by a bullet deep in the left calf; Granahan was grazed in the shin inside his right leg, and Pizzano was grazed beneath the nose and upper lip. Although Ayala was hit twice in the thigh and ankle, he managed to return about 15 rounds with one firearm, and then another, while still protecting the others with the hand-held body shield.
With all of the entry team in the apartment, in total, they managed to squeeze off 29 shots. Foxworth was hit in the abdomen and stumbled back into his bedroom to try to reach another rifle — a sawed off military assault weapon — loaded with armor-piercing bullets, but thankfully, he never made it. He collapsed, and team members cuffed him immediately. He was transported to the hospital where he was held in critical, but stable condition.
Both Ayala and Keenan were rushed in the same ambulance to the hospital and into surgery. Within days they were released from the Lutheran Medical Center and are now both recovering from their crippling wounds.
The perp had a rap sheet that included an attempted murder conviction as a juvenile, which landed him for several years behind bars. He had later arrests for robbery and weapons possession, and did another decade in stir, where he was also caught selling drugs. He had been on parole since July 2009. Police later recovered from his residence the Browning, the Ruger, and a defaced 22-caliber revolver, along with a stash of ammunition. He’s been hit with multiple charges, including attempted murder and assault.
While the incident prompted calls for more and greater controls on the flow of illegal firearms from the south, the focus of the shoot-out was on our stalwart Officers, who braved the assault on their lives with stoicism and resolve. With four of the seven entry team members struck by bullets at close range and all recovering nicely, the running gun battle was quickly dubbed by the press as the “miracle on Easter weekend.”
For their fearlessness and bravery, their endurance and uncompromising heroism, the DEA proudly bestowed its May 2012 Detectives of the Month honors on our “Miracle Men of Emergency Services:” Detectives Michael Keenan and Kenneth Ayala of Truck #6, and Detectives Joseph Penny and Timothy Murphy of Truck #7. Certificates of Appreciation went to Capt. Alfonso Pizzano and Sgt. Frank Ferrara of Truck #9, and P.O. Matthew Granahan of Truck #7. Keenan and Ayala, along with Det. Kevin Herlihy, involved in a separate 2012 shooting, were the DEA’s “Heroes of the Year” honored by the Union at our 2012 Annual Dinner.
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