Motive for Murder Of Parks Staffer As Elusive As Killer
By DAVID SIMS
The murder of a Parks Department employee at a Brooklyn swimming pool remains unsolved weeks after his shooting, with little information being disseminated to the media in the ongoing search for his killer.

JOSEPH PULEO: Put out word about search.

Damien Bowles, a 29-year-old father from Brownsville, was working at the Douglass and DeGraw swimming pool in Gowanus as a night watchman. He was killed after a man wearing a hood hopped the pool's fence, approached and shot Mr. Bowles in the neck before fleeing.

No Apparent Motive

The gunman remains unidentified and his motives unclear, with Mr. Bowles having no arrest record and no indication of gang activity in his life. Police have theorized that the murder could have been a random killing as part of a gang initiation or the result of an earlier disagreement between Mr. Bowles and the unknown killer at a convenience store nearby.

Kashif Hill, another aide who was at the pool at the time, pulled Mr. Bowles inside the facility following the shooting with a lifeguard who was on the premises. The lifeguard attempted CPR until an ambulance arrived, but Mr. Bowles died at the hospital. Joseph Puleo, another Parks Department employee, said that he was surprised that the case had gotten so little attention.

"Why aren't they at least letting the media know that there's a suspect out there" he said in a phone interview. "Usually when something like this happens, you hear about it, it's all over the papers, with descriptions of the suspect ... all we know is this person had a hood, came in, fired his weapon, allegedly fired another shot."

Camera Wasn't Working

Mr. Puleo said that there had been an investigation by the Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau after the shooting, which found that the pool was not properly secure and made recommendations for more video surveillance and better fencing around the site to prevent people from scaling the walls. "We found out that they did have a camera [at the pool], but it didn't operate in that location," he said.

He added that he had spoken to Mr. Bowles's sister, who came to the office after his death. "We tried to provide some financial assistance ... she's devastated, so in shock," he said. Mr. Bowles's mother gave an interview to the Daily News in which she said her son was a non-confrontational person who never had any problems with gangs.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said in a statement that "all of us in the Parks family are in shock at this murder." He declined to comment further on the search for the killer.