
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 7, 1990                   TAG: 9003071993
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short

POLICE SHOT THEIR OWN IN DRUG RAID

Two undercover officers wounded in a shootout with drug dealers were hit by police fire - one man from his own gun - and investigators may never know whose bullet killed a third officer, authorities say.

The gun battle took place Monday at a housing project during a cocaine buy involving two dealers.

State police investigator Joseph Aversa, 31, was slain. Two city detectives, Craig Moruzzi, 41, and Joseph Mendez, 29, suffered leg wounds.

Authorities and police sources said Aversa's fire struck Moruzzi, and that Mendez shot himself in a struggle with one dealer for control of the detective's gun.

-Associated Press

by CNB