The former police officer who was arrested for fatally shooting his girlfriend and injuring her friend spoke to a NY Post reporter early Monday morning, apparently before he was arrested. Jerry Bowens said, "I'm the cop wanted for the shooting...I'm crazy. I want to kill myself, but the family wants me to turn myself in...I hurt my girlfriend."
Bowens, who had been embroiled in drug scandal with other police officers (they allegedly stole drugs and cash from busts and used them to repay an informant), allegedly shot girlfriend Catherine Donofrio in the Greenpoint apartment of her friend Melissa Simmons. The Daily News reports that Bowens pulled Donofrio into the bathroom and shot her in the head there, then he fired shots at Simmons, who was wounded. The Post suggests Bowens believed Simmons was setting Donofrio up with other men.
Bowens went on the run, heading to a hotel in NJ (and leaving behind bloody towels) and eventually to Staten Island, where he was going to turn himself in at a police precinct, but cops found him a block away. Inside his car: a .357 magnum and an automatic rifle. Bowens was charged with murder and possession of a criminal weapon; he is getting a psychiatric evaluation.
