During a bloody fight in a Brooklyn strip mall parking lot, a former Georgian police officer was struck in the head with a hatchet and fatally shot by his girlfriend’s raging ex-husband, according to police.
When cops arrived at the Ocean Ave. parking lot at Voorhies Ave. in Sheepshead Bay around 9 p.m. on Thursday, they discovered 42-year-old Levan Galdava lying on the ground.
Cops said Galdava’s 44-year-old girlfriend was crying over his blood-soaked body.
She immediately pointed to her ex-husband, Dmytro Lapko, 47, who was standing near a Lexus SUV. The car was parked outside the Liquor & Wine Warehouse, which also houses a grocery store, in the strip mall.
Galdava moved to the U.S. from Georgia three years ago, said friends and neighbors who were rattled by his gruesome death.
“I saw him outside yesterday,” said one neighbor before breaking down in tears. “Now he’s gone.”
Friends and community members poured into Galdava’s home on Friday to pay their respects to the victim’s family. Anguished cries could be heard from the sidewalk outside his four-story building from inside his apartment.
A longtime friend Galdava was the super of his building.
According to a friend who would only identify himself as Roman, he was both a police officer and a soldier in Georgia.
“He was in the 2008 war between Georgia and Russia, and he was with US forces in Iraq,” Roman explained. “He was a doctor. He cared for injured soldiers.
“Now we have to pick a cemetery,” he grumbled.
According to police, Galdava, a father of three, was struck in the head with a heavy blade and repeatedly shot in the chest. He was taken to Coney Island Hospital by EMS, where he died.
“He was a good man,” said the neighbor. Galdava and his wife were estranged but remained friendly, according to her.
“This is terrible,” said the woman. “He was a gentleman. There were no squabbles. [He was] always cheerful.”
According to police, a bloody hatchet was discovered in the trunk of the ex-SUV. husband’s The gun was discovered on the ground beneath the car.
According to police, Lapko fired at least four shots at the victim after striking him with a hatchet.
He confessed to the attack and was arrested. According to police, Lapko of Staten Island is charged with murder and weapons possession.