TV news reporter and retired Central Park Five and ‘Preppie Killer’ detective Mike Sheehan dies (original) (raw)

Veteran New York City detective-turned-reporter Mike Sheehan, a key investigator in the Central Park Five case and the arrest of “preppie killer” Robert Chambers, has died, colleagues said.

Sheehan, 71, lost a battle with cancer at New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital late Friday, said Michael Palladino, president of the NYPD’s Detective Endowment Association. Sheehan also suffered kidney problems, friends said.

Sheehan grew up on the Upper East Side and worked as a bartender before joining the NYPD in July 1969.

He and his childhood friend, former NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Stephen Davis, were promoted to detective together in 1980 — when the city recorded a then-record 1,814 homicides — after their cop instincts helped break a big case.

Davis and Sheehan were working a night shift on W. 125th St. when they saw two men acting suspiciously as they exited a building. The cops tailed the men in their squad car for about a block and pulled over when the suspects suddenly turned.

“We got the jump on them first,” Davis recalled. “We jumped out of the car just as he was about to pull the gun from his waist.”

It turned out the men were linked to 11 murders in Harlem and to the shooting of police officer Mary Bembry, the first female cop shot in NYPD history. Bembry was off duty on Feb. 9, 1980 when she, her uncle and their accountant were shot in a robbery in the accountant’s office. Bembry survived but her uncle and the accountant were killed.

Sheehan’s sharp instincts and ability to read and talk to people were sorely needed as crime peaked, said Davis.

Although their careers took them in different directions, Davis and Sheehan stayed friends. Davis last saw his childhood pal just after he was admitted to the hospital two weeks ago.

“I was belly laughing,” Davis said. “I was getting embarrassed. He was remembering some stories that I prefer would be forgotten.”

Sheehan spent 23 years with the department, and worked on such high-profile cases as that of Chambers, convicted of killing 18-year-old Jennifer Levin in Central Park in 1986, and the controversial 1989 Central Park jogger investigation that led to five black and Latino teens being convicted of rape — charges that were later vacated.

Sheehan retired in 1992. He then became a reporter for Fox 5, where he worked until 2009. He was fired after being arrested for hitting an NYPD horse with his car.

“It was a kick in the chest,” Sheehan told the Daily News of his firing. Later, he pleaded guilty to driving drunk and slamming into the horse.

Sheehan is survived by his wife Denise and daughter Clair.

Originally Published: June 8, 2019 at 10:27 a.m.