By James DeWeese
Officers Carlo Cifarelli and Clif Spell found the victim, a man who had been shot in the leg, lying on the floor of a back bedroom in his 17th-floor apartment, they said. But when they decided to dig a little deeper, they also found three loaded handguns – a .380-caliber gun, .357-caliber gun and a .357-caliber Desert Eagle – several hundred rounds of ammunition and a bullet-proof vest, police said.
The officers, who have spent their entire careers in the precinct, arrested the man and his girlfriend, to whom the guns belonged, said Lt. Thomas Loeffel, who presented the pair with the April Cop of the Month award.
“As a result of making the arrest and doing such a good job, we're going to give them the Cop of the Month award,” Loeffel told the May 19 Community Council meeting at St. John's Hospital in Elmhurst.
Deputy Inspector Martin Conway handed the officers the award.
“It's nice to be recognized,” Spell said of the award. Cifarelli agreed.
