On a recent gray morning in Yonkers, a special unit of NYPD cops on the hunt for a shooting suspect were positioned outside the home of their quarry — Shaquille Williams, wanted for allegedly wounding a man in the Bronx more than a month ago.
The problem: Williams’ girlfriend, the mother of their twin babies, was too scared to let the plainclothes cops in.
No, she insisted, Williams wasn’t home, and no, she wasn’t opening the door because she didn’t want the children to get hurt. But after a prolonged back and forth she finally relented and allowed the police inside, where after a brief search they found their man.
Williams, 27, was sitting in a large plastic storage bin, hiding under a pile of clothes.
“He moved, we saw his face and we knew it was him,” said Det. Sean Wolfenhaut. “He had nothing to say.”
So began a successful day for the NYPD’s Bronx Violent Felony Squad whose job is to search for accused felons. Their shift that day would include busting an alleged gunman while he was brushing his teeth and end with an accused killer extradited from Chicago being walked into a Bronx precinct.
For these cops, little has changed during the coronavirus pandemic because unlike with other specialized units, the NYPD did not borrow from the squad to backfill the thousands of patrol cops out sick.
So aside from wearing masks, it’s business as usual: Shifts that often start at 3 a.m. and days in which searches come up empty — or the squad hits the jackpot.
Indeed, during the first of two days a Daily News reporter spent with the squad, the hunt for three accused killers was fruitless. The story was the same every time they knocked on a door: “He’s not here and I have no idea where he is.”
Unless someone’s life is in danger, squad members don’t knock down doors, so success depends on getting whoever is home that day to cooperate.
“Some people will just lie to you — and it’s a terrible lie,” Det. Joseph Parchen said. “You know they’re lying and they know they’re lying, but that’s what they’re sticking with and there’s nothing I can do about it.
“We just keep trying.”
The squad of investigators, led by Sgt. Lee Dukes, spring into action after precinct detectives come to them when there’s either an arrest warrant issued or probable cause to make an arrest
At that point, the detectives take what they have — addresses for the suspect or for his relatives and friends, where the suspect tends to hang out — and go from there. They’ll conduct surveillance, mine social media for clues and pore over phone records.
Sometimes, a call from an informant helps them cut right to the chase.
Other times, it could take weeks before the decision is made to knock on a door. When that happens, there is a tactical meeting beforehand, with a review of the case — and the suspect.
“We always presume they’re armed and dangerous,” Dukes said. “You have to — just because of the nature of the crime they’ve committed.”
The first day The News tagged along, Det, Lahmar Sanders went looking for Dayton “Soldgi” Panton, 39, suspected of a January 2010 fatal shooting outside an illegal social club. The squad went to his home on Chestnut St., but Panton wasn’t there and his wife wasn’t forthcoming, Sanders said.
A half-hour later, the detectives went to an apartment on E. 168th St. to look for Angel Lora, wanted for a July 2019 drug-related murder. An accomplice was busted three months later in Florida, but Lora, 19, has proven elusive.
Many suspects, especially younger ones, eventually return home. But on this day, Lora’s mom and sister are there. He isn’t.
“I’m not going to give up,” Wolfenhaut said. “We’re going to find him.”
At that point, he decides to turn up the heat, and the squad tapes wanted posters with Lora’s photo inside the building’s vestibule.
“You’ve been living there for years and the next thing you know all the neighbors now know what’s going on,” he said. “I’m sure the family is not going to be happy about that.”
Bingo. A lawyer calls the next day and promises to surrender Lora the day after that.
Wolfenhaut’s brother, Det. Jason Wolfenhaut, is also a member of the squad. He recently had two suspects in the same case surrender on separate days. Sean Wolfenhaut isn’t so lucky. Lora doesn’t show up the day the lawyer promised — or any day since then.
Parchen also struck out later that morning at a building near the 44th Precinct, where he hoped murder suspect Alexis Flores, 20, might be hiding out at a friend’s home.
Flores, wanted for shooting a 46-year-old grandfather at a bapt
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