Larry Davis, NYPD Manhunt Survivor, Killed in Prison
http://gothamist.com/attachments/jen...larrydavis.jpgThough he survived an NYPD manhunt and hostage standoff in 1986, Larry Davis died violently yesterday in an upstate prison yard after being shanked multiple times by a fellow inmate. Davis was stabbed multiple times with a foot-long metal shank.
According to the state Department of Correctional Services, Luis Rosado killed Davis at 7:30 p.m. last night while prisoners were out for an evening recreational session at Shawangunk Correctional Facility. Rosado stabbed Davis on his arms, head, back, upper thigh and chest. The assailant reportedly has a long history of assaulting other inmates and was arraigned today.
Davis became notorious in the 1980s when he was suspected of murdering a number of drug dealers in the city. As police raided the apartment where he lived, Davis unleashed a fusillade of fire from a darkened bedroom, using a shotgun and a pistol before escaping out a window. Six police were injured in the gun battle, two seriously.
http://gothamist.com/attachments/nyc...larrydavis.jpgDavis was captured more than two weeks later (the police manhunt involved hundreds of cops) after holding a woman and her child hostage as police gathered in a standoff. By the time he emerged, he had simultaneously become a folk hero to some and symbolic of out-of-control crime to others. Here are some rap lyrics: If I had 24 hours to live and one wish
I wouldn't wish for no damn lifesavers
I'd start going wild like Larry Davis
The funk speach vigalante from the L.O.D.
Davis' legal defense, which included William Kunstler and Lynne Stewart, asserted he was acting in self-defense when the police originally stormed his apartment. Davis claimed he was forced into drug dealing and shaken down by crooked cops. When he allegedly refuse to cooperate further with them, he said he became a target for law enforcement assassination. David was acquitted by a jury of all counts of attempted murder of the police officers, but convicted of weapons charges and sentenced to 5-15 years in prison. In 1991, Davis was convicted in the 1986 murder of another drug dealer.
Larry Davis' story became the fictionalized underpinning to the plot of of Sydney Lumet's 1997 film "Night Falls in Manhattan." Here's an interesting account of one man's unpleasant run-in with Davis shortly before his gun battle with the police. You can also see some clips of a documentary called "The Larry Davis
