By:Jerry Burke
When the wife of 62-year-old Fitzgerald Harvey woke up with a plastic bag around her head last Wednesday morning after being attacked by her husband, she was lucky. After she regained consciousness and fled her Edwards Blvd. home on foot, running toward the Fifth Precinct station house, her husband would later be saved by police after attempting to kill himself in the couple's garage.
The bizarre incident began sometime after 7 a.m. Police say Harvey began a physical struggle as his wife was leaving for her job as a schoolteacher in Brooklyn. Police say Harvey knocked her to the ground and held his hands over her face while their children, aged 16, 15 and 12, slept upstairs. After she lost consciousness, he took the children to school as he did every day.
Police say he then returned to his home, parked in the driveway and at some point duct taped a plastic bag over his wife's head and taped up her arms. Fifth Squad Det. Lt. Robert Cuerbo said the victim faked being dead because she was not sure where her husband had gone, but shortly after 8:20 a.m., Cuerbo said she freed herself and ran the few blocks to the precinct headquarters.
Police say she made it to the station and was treated there for bruises to her arms and face as well as a broken denture suffered after biting him during the tussle.
When police made their way to the couple's home, they enter the house and smelled fumes coming from the garage. Officers Stewart Brown and Anthony Raymond and Sgt. Gans and Det. Edward Rogan tried to open the door linking the two structures but it was locked. They then broke open another window and saw Harvey sitting in his car with the engine running.
As the they attempted to break down the garage door, Det. Rogan suffered a laceration to his hand. Finally, they found Harvey losing consciousness, turned off the engine and removed him from the garage.
Harvey, who police say left a suicide note saying good-bye to his family, was rushed to Mercy Medical Center, treated and later transferred to Nassau University Medical Center for further observation. He was arrested and charged with second degree
attempted murder.
Officers Brown and Raymond and Det. Rogan were taken to Franklin Hospital Medical Center for treatment of carbon monoxide exposure. Det. Rogan was also treated for the cut to his hand. All were released soon after.
Cuerbo said that while a motive has not yet been released, the couple appeared to be having relationship troubles after being together for 20 years.
