Shooting shatters a special Staten Island friendship

By Frank Donnelly

Advance file photo Emergency medical technicians Matthew Cook of Prince's Bay and his partner, Rafael Marrero, were riding high after delivering and saving a baby born five months premature and weighing less than a pound. But their close, work-forged bond was splintered amid gunplay.

But their friendship has been stretched to the limit after Marrero accidentally shot and wounded Cook in the arm four months ago - while the pair was painting Marrero's upstate home.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. --- Partners on the graveyard shift on a Fire Department ambulance, they handled about every kind of emergency from drunken-driving wrecks and kid-club overdoses to severed limbs and bloody assaults.

Less than two years ago, emergency medical technicians Matthew Cook of Prince's Bay and his partner, Rafael Marrero, were riding high after delivering and saving a baby born five months premature and weighing less than a pound.

But their friendship has been stretched to the limit after Marrero accidentally shot and wounded Cook in the arm four months ago - while the pair was painting Marrero's upstate home.

Cook, 23, has sued Marrero over the Oct. 25 incident in Middletown.

"His lifelong dream was to be a fireman, and that dream right now is in jeopardy," Cook's lawyer, Michael Ian Black of Manhattan said last week.

Black said Cook, who was hospitalized after the incident, has not returned to work as an EMT.

The civil action, filed in state Supreme Court, St. George, seeks unspecified monetary damages from Marrero, 40, whom Cook identifies in court papers as "Ralph" Marrero.

Marrero is already facing a slew of criminal charges for assault, weapon possession, reckless endangerment and evidence tampering in Orange County Court stemming from the shooting.

Also named in the lawsuit is Melissa Rosario, identified in court papers as the homeowner. She does not appear to have been criminally charged.

Black said Marrero and Rosario are boyfriend and girlfriend and have lived together since before the incident date.

The attorney said his client and Marrero weren't just work mates, they were good friends. They were so tight that Cook had traveled upstate to help Marrero paint part of his home.

At one point, Marrero showed Cook a handgun that was inside the residence.

"The gun should never have been in the house," said Black. "It should never have been handled by [Marrero]."

Black said Marrero gave the gun to Cook to look at. Cook questioned why Marrero had a gun in the house and gave it back to Marrero to be put away.

Marrero took the weapon from Cook and at some point afterward while Marrero was holding it, the weapon discharged, with a bullet striking Cook's arm, said Black.

Marrero and Ms. Rosario did not return a telephone message left for them last week.

Online state court records show Marrero was indicted last month in Orange County on nine counts -- seven felonies and two misdemeanors.

He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Jan. 20 and was released on his own recognizance. He's due back in court tomorrow for a conference.

The top count against Marrero -- second-degree assault -- carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.

Calls last week to the prosecutor handling the case for the Orange County District Attorney's office were not returned.

In happier times, Cook and Marrero were feted in May 2009 for saving the life of a premature baby girl born in a car on Manhattan's Houston Street.

According to Advance reports, the tiny infant weighed under a pound.

Cook cut open the mother's blood-stained jeans before he and Marrero slowly pulled out the baby, who was motionless and pale.

They wrapped her in blankets and cut the umbilical cord. Marrero flicked her foot to stimulate her breathing. The infant let out a gasp and began to cry.

"That was it. She just started to breathe, then starts to cry. It's a great feeling," Cook told the Advance afterward.

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