Slain ATF agent John Capano is being honored by the school district he attended as a youngster this week not far from where he was tragically responding to the armed robbery of a local pharmacy.
All American flags in the Seaford School District were placed at half-mast this week after Capano, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), was shot and killed responding to an of in Seaford. A moment of silence is also planned in honor of Capano at the start of Thursday night’s Seaford Board of Education meeting taking place at starting at 7:30 p.m.
Capano of Massapequa was picking up cancer medication at Charlie’s for his elderly father shortly before 2 p.m. Saturday when James McGoey of Hampton Bays entered the store demanding cash and drugs, prompting the ATF agent and two other men to confront the suspect as he fled out the front door. A shootout ensued and both Capano and McGoey were killed. told the New York Post and ABC News they believe the bullet that struck Capano came from the gun of retired Nassau County police Lt. Christopher Geraghty, 54, who responded to the scene along with off-duty New York City Police Officer Joseph Arbia, 29, of Seaford.
Seaford Superintendent of Schools Brian Conboy recalls growing up with Capano as a youngster and still running into him often at a 7-Eleven in Massapequa and catching up on old times. Capano and Conboy both attended the former Seaford Avenue Elementary School and participated in Boy Scouts and Seaford Little League together. Conboy said Capano was very active with the in Seaford and was a skilled athlete.
“He had very strong ties to the community,” said Conboy, a Massapequa resident. “He comes from a very community-minded family.”
Prior to being gunned down during the New Year’s Eve Seaford armed robbery, Capano was in his 24th year as an ATF agent and assigned to the New York Field Division’s Long Island Field Office. The Seaford native was a member of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association and the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators (IABTI) who had had taught U.S. military and local forces in Afghanistan and Iraq how to investigate blasts.
A funeral mass for Capano is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Friday at in Seaford followed by burial at St. Charles Cemetery in East Farmingdale. A wake will be held at in Seaford on Wednesday and Thursday with visiting hours on both days from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
