The punqueazz got his just reward...
A lil' followup story and, the denouement, in this time of 30 sec 'reading'.
GL, mD

February 11, 2011, 2:54 pm
Suspect in Stolen-BMW Assault Case Dies in Florida Shootout

By AL BAKER and LIZ ROBBINSNew York State Department of Correctional Services Barion A. Blake in a 2007 arrest photo.

A former convict wanted on charges that he stole a BMW sports car last month and stuffed its critically injured owner in the trunk was killed Friday in a shootout with officers on a fugitive task force in Florida, officials said.

The suspect, Barion A. Blake, 30, had been sought since Jan. 26 in the attack on Akeem Ajimotokan, 33, who had advertised the car, a BMW M3 coupe, for sale online for $46,000. After meeting Mr. Ajimotokan, the police said, Mr. Blake stabbed him repeatedly, nearly sliced off one of his ears, stuffed his bound body into the trunk of the car and drove off. The car was abandoned after an accident in Upper Manhattan.
A yellow-cab driver, whose vehicle was rear-ended by the BMW, said the tall, tattooed driver — who the authorities believe was Mr. Blake — simply walked away. But investigators found a handwritten bill of sale, dated Jan. 25, to Mr. Blake, from Mr. Ajimotokan.

The authorities tracked Mr. Blake to an apartment complex in Jacksonville, Fla., and on Friday afternoon, as they entered through the front door of a second-floor apartment to arrest Mr. Blake, he jumped from a balcony into some bushes and opened fire, law enforcement officials said.
No officers were hit by gunfire, said Penelope J. Knox, a supervisory deputy with the United States Marshals Service in Jacksonville. She said two officers — one from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and one from the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office — returned fire, striking the suspect “pretty much everywhere; he was definitely hit in center mass.”

One official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing, said the authorities believed that Mr. Blake had fired 10 shots at officers, though another official said ballistics tests were not complete.

Ms. Knox said marshals had received a tip from the police in New York on Wednesday that Mr. Blake was in the Jacksonville area. “A deputy did background checks and tracked him to the apartment, in the Colonnade apartment complex at 989 Monument Road,” Ms. Knox said. “At noon on Friday officers from four agencies — part of the Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force — moved in to execute an arrest warrant, for attempted murder.”

“At the point in time where they made entry to the front door, the fugitive exited out the balcony, jumping from the second floor into the bushes,” said Ms. Knox. “At that point, after he jumped, he began to flee on foot and began firing at law enforcement officers.”

As for Mr. Ajimotokan, after being found in his BMW two weeks ago, he was taken to Harlem Hospital Center, where he was placed on a ventilator and was in a coma. He was later moved to an undisclosed hospital in New York for privacy.

On Friday, his brother Dr. Ayo Ajim said in an e-mail that Mr. Ajimotokan’s condition was improving.

“Akeem is doing a little better, but still in coma at the hospital,” he wrote. “We continue to hope and pray for him to get better.”

In a telephone interview from his home in Houston, Dr. Ajim said that he had spoken with an assistant district attorney handling the criminal case and had been informed of Mr. Blake’s death — though he was unaware it had occurred in Florida.

“We were told, the last we heard, was that they had cornered him into a building, and they knew he was there from the cellphone,” Dr. Ajim said. “But the building has 600 apartments and they were playing a waiting game.”

He also said the news of Mr. Blake’s death had brought some relief.
But, he said: “It’s just so sad to know that we happen to be dealing with loss of life and a coma over a vehicle. The whole thing is so sad.”
Mr. Ajimotokan, who grew up as the youngest of four boys in a close-knit family in Lagos, Nigeria, attended law school and was employed by the office of procurement at Columbia University. He had placed his car for sale online, attaching a photo and his cellphone number.

Mr. Blake, whose uncle is Deputy Chief Michael Blake, of the New York Police Department’s counterterrorism division, had a history of arrests for stealing BMWs. He bounced from incarceration to incarceration, going directly from New Jersey to New York state correctional facilities five times from 2001 to 2010, for various crimes, including assaulting a police officer, officials said. Mr. Blake was released in April in New Jersey, after finishing his sentence for stealing a car in Bergen County.

The apartment complex where Mr. Blake was killed is about 10 miles east of Jacksonville’s city center. Friday evening, red-and-white police tape was strung around the area. Several bullet holes pocked a cement wall, and evidence markers indicated at least 27 shell casings.

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