An ex-NYPD detective went berserk following a fit of road rage on Staten Island last night, unleashing a hail of bullets that killed a retired hero cop and wounded his trusty work dog, authorities said.
Steve Vitale, who once headed the Port Authority Police Department’s canine unit – which helped recover bodies from the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 – was shot in front of his horrified wife.
Vitale died at Staten Island University Hospital shortly after 6:45 p.m. as SWAT teams surrounded the Springville house of the alleged shooter, former Manhattan Detective Allen Lau of the 17th Precinct.
ESU cops cordoned off the block, evacuated startled neighbors and tried to persuade Lau – dressed in a Ninja-style outfit and sporting a long pony tail – to surrender.
Police at the scene saw a drunken Lau inside his Travis Avenue home guzzling beer and changing into his old police uniform, they said.
“I am embarrassed,” he told a police negotiator.
Lau, who has permits for 17 guns, had been tailgating Vitale and flashing a rifle through the window, authorities said. “Look at this nut,” Vitale told his wife, before pulling his Jeep Cherokee into a Richmond Hill Road strip mall to pick up Chinese food, police sources said.
When Lau got out of his Honda, words were exchanged, witnesses said, and Lau pulled out the high-powered weapon and fired at least eight rounds at Vitale.
The ex-detective then allegedly tried to shoot Vitale’s wife, who was sitting in the passenger seat, missed and hit the dog, who is expected to survive.
“It sounded like he fired and reloaded,” said a deli worker who declined to give her name. “Seven and then seven – it sounded like he did one clip and then reloaded.”
Neighbors said Lau was divorced with children and lived alone.
Vitale, a 22-year-veteran and the father of three who retired in the mid-’90s, received, among other honors, the Medal of Valor for helping recover bodies at the WTC.
He most recently had worked for Manhattan-based GSS, a private security firm, heading its K-9 explosive-detection division.
It was not clear if Lau and Vitale knew each other.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona and Tom Liddy