According to information provided by the NYPD to the New York Times, ten officers were dismissed for gun-related, off-duty incidents in an eighteen-month period between January 1996 and July 1997.

Off-duty incidents frequently have racial overtones. In an October 3, 1996 incident, off-duty NYPD officer Richard D. DiGuglielmo and family members got into an altercation with Charles C. Campbell in Westchester County. DiGuglielmo is white, and Campbell was black. Campbell parked his car in front of DiGuglielmo's family-run delicatessen, and a physical altercation ensued between Campbell, DiGuglielmo, his father and his brother-in-law. Campbell retrieved a baseball bat from his car and reportedly hit the father in the leg and then backed away, according to at least one witness, while the DiGuglielmos contend that Campbell posed a threat to the elder DiGuglielmo. Officer DiGuglielmo then returned from the family's store with a gun and fired at Campbell three times, killing him.185 The Westchester County district attorney charged Officer DiGuglielmo with second-degree murder, and his father and brother were charged with second-degree assault. In October 1997, a jury found Officer DiGuglielmo guilty, and in December he was sentenced to twenty years to life in prison; he was fired after the conviction.186

In another off-duty incident, Det. Constantine Chronis allegedly took part in the beating of Shane L. Daniels while drinking with friends at a nightclub in Westhampton Beach, Long Island in May 1996.187 Chronis is white, and Daniels is African-American. According to reports, Chronis and his friends uttered racial epithets at Daniels and his friends, leading to a violent confrontation.188 Chronisallegedly held Daniels's friends at bay with a handgun as Daniels was beaten with a metal steering wheel lock by Chronis's friend; the attack left Daniels in a coma for weeks, with a three-inch hole in his skull. Daniels survived, with a plastic plate in his skull impaired vision.

A Suffolk County grand jury indicted Chronis on assault, "menacing," and official misconduct charges after he left the scene without reporting the incident. He resigned from the police force in August 1996. Detective Chronis did not have an extensive physical abuse complaint record, but did have CCRB complaints regarding his use of racially or ethnically offensive language. According to reports, this was one of five off-duty NYPD-officer-related incidents on Long Island during the summer of 1996. At the time of this writing, Chronis's trial was expected to take place in mid-1998.189

185 David Kocieniewski, "New York officer charged in murder," New York Times, October 5, 1996.

186 "Rage cited in officer's killing of man over parking space," New York Times, September 19, 1997; Jim Fitzgerald, "Jury convicts NYC cop of murder," Associated Press, October 25, 1997, [Wire Service]; "Ex-officer is sentenced for parking-space killing," New York Times, December 16, 1997.

187 Dan Barry, "Beating was racial clash, witnesses tell police," New York Times, May 31, 1996, Dan Barry, 2d man is charged in L.I. bar beating, New York Times, June 13, 1996, and Barry, "The charge is assault in a beating at an L.I. bar," New York Times, June 21, 1996; John McQuiston, "Man beaten outside nightclub is back home," New York Times, July 12, 1996; John McQuiston, "Man held in beating outside L.I. club is to be freed on bail," New York Times, April 17, 1997.

188 McQuiston, "Man beaten outside nightclub is back home," New York Times, July 12, 1996

189 John T. McQuiston, "2 years after brutal assault, trial is to begin," New York Times, February 17, 1998.