By Patrick H. Moore
As a parent, it’s never easy for me to decide how best to discipline my kids when they’re acting up. Perhaps my most creative act of “law enforcement” was the time many years ago when one of my daughters filched a $20 bill out of my wallet. My wife and I both knew we had her dead to rights but she’s tough and dug in her heels and refused to confess. I knew I had to do something so I decided to try the “big scare” technique. I told her that if she didn’t come clean immediately I was going to take her down to the Sheriff’s station so that she could confess to them. That worked. Instant waterworks. Extreme fear. Complete acceptance of responsibility. And best of all I never had to do it again. From that day forward, to the best of my knowledge, she has never stolen so much as a dollar.
So I guess my “let’s go down and tell the L.A. County Sheriff’s about it approach” could be seen as a form of “tough love for 10-year-old girls”. So what do you do when your son is 17, has an attitude, is known for “tagging” the neighborhood, and has just been ticketed for shoplifting and released with the equivalent of a traffic ticket? Well, if you’re Queens corrections officer Robert Smalls and you’re fed up with your obnoxious, trouble-making boy, and you just can’t take it any more, you do the logical thing. You shoot the boy and then you’re taken into custody.
Vera Chinese, Joseph Stepansky and Barry Paddock of the New York Daily News collaborated on the story:
An off-duty correction officer went from showing his teenage son tough love to showing him the barrel of a gun.
Identified by his Queens neighbors as Robert Smalls, the man was angry that police released his 17-year-old son, Quasaun, with just a desk appearance ticket after he was caught shoplifting drill bits from Home Depot in Long Island City. Smalls wanted the boy jailed and put through the system to teach him a lesson that he wouldn’t soon forget.
When Quasaun came home around 4:30 a.m. Sunday and confronted his father, the argument escalated into a throwdown and fists started flying inside the Woodside apartment they share on 57th St., officials said.
The situation escalated and the 39-year-old off-duty officer pulled out a 9-mm. handgun and blasted his son once in the midsection.
“The kid never had a weapon,” a police source said.
“I heard a gunshot,” said neighbor Maria Sanchez, 52. “Then I heard someone yelling.”
Smalls wisely called 911 after the shooting and explained what had happened. Emergency workers then took the wounded teen to Elmhurst Hospital, where he was in stable condition and expected to survive. The interesting thing, though, is that, according to sources, although Smalls was taken into custody, he may not be charged if investigators believe he acted in self-defense. I guess this would be a sort of New York “stand your ground against your own son” type of defense.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the gun was Smalls’ personal weapon or a firearm issued by the Department of Correction.
This wasn’t the first time Smalls and Quasaun have ended up on the police blotter. Father and son filed criminal complaints against each other following a verbal blowout in November 2011. And in April of this year, the dad complained to the cops after another fight. The police report that Quasaun has had numerous prior brushes with the law, most recently less than a month ago when he was arrested for trespassing.
The neighbors naturally put their two cents in. Although not unanimous, the consensus was that the Quasaun was a troublemaker.
“I was complaining to his father to take control of his kid — he was tagging the whole neighborhood with graffiti,” a 45-year-old neighbor said.“He said ‘I’m at work! What do you want me to do about it? Call the cops!’ ”
But another neighbor, who declined to give her name, said she was fond of both Smalls and Quasaun..
“It’s strange because they’re both so nice. The son helps me with my shopping cart sometimes. They both just seem nice.”
“I guess you never know with people,” she added.
The neighbor explained that she heard the fight and the shot fired early on Sunday.
“One person was yelling, ‘Why don’t you blah, blah, blah, blah’ — things I don’t want to repeat. Whoever he was yelling at stayed silent though.”
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I feel a certain sympathy for both corrections officer Robert Smalls and his ill-behaved son. Based on the neighbor’s report, they both clearly have a good side and it’s a shame that things reached such an impasse. I imagine it will be a bit tense in the apartment they share, however, if charges are dropped and Smalls returns home.
“Hi Dad. Thanks for shooting me.”
“Don’t mention it, son. You want to get a pizza?”
“You gotta be kidding me.”
“No really. I’m hungry. Lousy food down at the station.”
“Well…”
“Tell you what, we’ll make it your favorite pepperoni with anchovies.”
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Something tells me it won’t be that easy.