A better headline would be Man Burned Alive by Savages.... What lovely neighbors this garbage must have been. Saba Welcome, saba22 Sign Up for Newsletters | Log Out Go to Advanced Search August 22, 2001 City Marshal Killed in Brooklyn Eviction Attempt By C. J. CHIVERS and KEVIN FLYNN Related Sites These sites are not part of The New York Times on the Web, and The Times has no control over their content or availability. Department of Investigation city marshal trying to evict a tenant from a three-story Brooklyn apartment building yesterday afternoon was killed when an argument with tenants escalated into a vicious fight near the building's entrance that ended when he was set afire, the police said. The authorities said the marshal, Erskine G. Bryce, 66, was serving his last set of eviction papers of the day at 50 New York Avenue in Bedford- Stuyvesant when the fight began. Mr. Bryce, with his clothes burned entirely off his body and his pistol nearby, was pronounced dead on the stairwell near the ground floor minutes later. It was the first killing of a working city marshal since 1984, and angry city officials said Mr. Bryce died in what would ordinarily be tense but routine circumstances: he was to deliver court papers and padlock an apartment door. "It's unthinkable that something like this could happen in the course of carrying out the legal requirements of this job," Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said at an appearance in Brooklyn at which he expressed condolence to Mr. Bryce's family. Detectives were questioning a second-floor tenant, JoAnna Jones, and her son Rodney, 23, at the 79th Precinct station house last night, and the authorities said Ms. Jones had told them that her boyfriend had fought with and killed Mr. Bryce in the hallway outside her door. The police initially could not find the boyfriend, whom they identified as Antoine (Barry) Bennaugh, 39, and as detectives questioned Ms. Jones, a police emergency unit swept through the neighborhood, going from house to house with weapons drawn and dogs on leashes. They looked under cars, in a shed and in a vegetable garden, without success. Later, the police said, Mr. Bennaugh walked calmly up to officers who were stationed at the crime scene, and he was taken to the station house for questioning as well. They said that while Ms. Jones had placed the blame on her boyfriend, other witnesses said two men were seen beating Mr. Bryce, and detectives were also investigating the possibility that he had been sprayed in the face with an aerosol can during the fight and ignited, perhaps accidentally, with a cigarette. New York City's 41 marshals, who serve five-year terms under mayoral appointment, are peace officers, and are allowed to carry licensed handguns. One police official said Mr. Bryce had two pistols registered to his name, one of which, a .380-caliber Glock semiautomatic, was found on the stairwell near his body. The police said it did not appear that Mr. Bryce had fired his weapon. Associates said Mr. Bryce was a native of Barbados who had immigrated, and had been a city marshal since 1989, working out of an office on Livingston Street. He had two children: a son, Eaton, who is a city police officer assigned to the transit bureau, and a daughter, Carol, who is a postal police officer. He had just completed a week's vacation in Greece and had returned to work on Monday. He was in plain clothes yesterday, the police said. The building, owned by Virginia Smith, is a three-story orange-brick walk-up with white trim, directly across New York Avenue from Public School 93 and next door to a vacant lot littered with two abandoned automobiles. The Long Island Rail Road elevated tracks pass by about 100 feet away. Dorothy Taitt, a neighbor on the block, said that Ms. Smith lived in the building, and that her difficulties with Ms. Jones were well known. "The lady refused to pay rent," she said, "and she had to take the lady to court." [Saba Note: If you could call that pig a "lady".] Investigators said Mr. Bryce was evicting Ms. Jones from her apartment there for the second time this year. He had previously evicted her on June 18 because she had not been paying the rent, the police said. But she was reinstated to the apartment earlier this summer, only to fall behind in the rent again. The authorities were also looking into reports that Ms. Jones was so upset about her previous dealings with Mr. Bryce that she had filed a lawsuit against him. "He had some contact with the family he was trying to evict," said Police Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik. One investigator said Mr. Bryce had last called his office at 3:30 p.m. to say he was making one last stop. The first hint of the struggle began just before 3:55 p.m., the police said, when a resident of the building called 911 to report that a marshal was involved in a fight. A second call was placed within minutes. A final call came almost immediately after 4 p.m., the police said, with an agitated caller saying an officer needed help. When the police arrived, Mr. Bryce's remains were smoldering and Ms. Jones was climbing out of the window, officials said. She was immediately taken into custody for questioning. Investigators said that it was not clear whether Mr. Bryce died from a head injury or the burns, and that he had a bruise and a cut wrist that he might have received defending himself. They also said that while it appeared that he had been struck in the head, they were investigating the possibility that he had been shoved down the steps and suffered the head wound in an extended tumble. One detective also said Mr. Bryce might have been temporarily blinded with an aerosol spray and then pushed. Whether the fire was intentionally set or ignited by accident was not clear, the detective said, although he believed that a lighted cigarette set off the fire. Another city marshal from Brooklyn, Howard Schain, said that he had known Mr. Bryce for years, and that Mr. Bryce did landlord cases almost exclusively. Mr. Schain said these cases are especially dangerous when a marshal works alone. "Every time I have been hit, I was by myself," he said. "When I have been with other people, no one has hit me." Mr. Kerik said that city marshals often serve court papers alone, although they are provided police escorts when they request it. "The routine protocol is that if the marshals feel that there is a safety hazard, they reach out to the Police Department for assistance, and that wasn't done in this case," he said. 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