By Jeff Lipton
Following the shooting, heavily armed police officers swarmed the neighborhood on Bayview Avenue and the surrounding streets, searching for the suspect. A SWAT team, K-9 Unit, and detectives scoured the area, concentrating their search around the adjacent railroad tracks and on Bayview Avenue from Lawrence Avenue to the Nassau Expressway. Area schools, including the Number Four, Number Two and Number One schools, were locked down, with no one allowed to enter or leave the buildings during the search.
The alleged gunman was found about two hours later, hiding in an apartment across the street from the scene of the shooting, police said.
The suspect, identified as Tremaine Alexander, 22, was charged with second-degree attempted murder, police said.
According to investigators, the suspect's mother, Ella Jean Isom, was embroiled in a fierce argument with her boyfriend, Frank Beamon, who had moved into her apartment at 94 Bayview Ave. a week earlier.
Apparently the arrangement was not working out between the two, said Det. Sgt. Dennis Barry of the Nassau County Homicide Squad. The argument, Barry said, intensified shortly before 11 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 30, when Isom demanded that Beamon move out. The argument was overheard by Alexander, who also lived in the house and interceded in the dispute, police said.
Beamon stormed out of the apartment, according to Barry, and Alexander followed him out to the street. Alexander then grabbed a weapon from a car parked nearby and confronted Beamon with it in front of 91 Bayview Ave., Barry said. Alexander opened fire, striking Beamon five times in the back, Barry said. The bullets pierced his liver, kidney and small intestine, the sergeant said, adding that Beamon was also hit two times in the legs.
He was airlifted by helicopter to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, where he was listed in serious condition, police said.
Following the shooting, the suspect, who was not wearing a shirt, ran into a building at 81 Bayview Ave., where he hid as police combed the neighborhood for him, investigators said. Service on the Long Island Rail Road was temporarily suspended as police in riot gear sought clues to Alexander's whereabouts, and the Lawrence train station was closed.
Heavily armed police surrounded and searched area homes, and at about 1 p.m. police found Alexander hiding at 81 Bayview Ave. and took him into custody.
Police said they were in the process of recovering the weapon used in the
shooting.
Alexander was being held without bail in Nassau County jail, according to the Nassau County District Attorney's Office.
Det. Lt. Gregory Detwiller, commander of the Fourth Squad, said the schools were notified by police of the shooting as a precaution. At no time did we feel that the schools were in danger, he said.
When parents arrived at the Number Four School on Wanser Avenue to pick up their children, they were stunned to learn that a shooting had occurred around the corner. Others said they heard about the incident from TV reports and rushed to the school to pick up their children.
Teresa Smith said she came to pick up her daughter, Ashley, 4, early from Number Four School. I heard there was a shooting over here and I wanted to get her, Smith said.
Lawrence residents Fred and Tricia Nardi, whose son Joey attends the school, said a relative called to tell them the story was on TV, and they hurried to the school to pick up Joey, who usually takes the school bus home.
We heard that the shooter was still at large, and we feel better picking Joey up here, said Tricia Nardi. I feel better that I am with him now.
She said the school acted appropriately by locking down the building, and that Principal Yvonne Nicholas acted admirably during the potential crisis, keeping parents and students calm.
Notices were sent home with students explaining the actions the schools took between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
It's scary, said Cassandra St. Furcy, who picked up her child at the school. I had no idea what happened until I arrived here.
As she met her child at the Number Four School, one angry parent blurted out, I don't want my son around this. This is not what I'm paying my taxes for.
