BROOKLYN — Raymond Facey pulled over on the Cross Island Parkway Tuesday morning to take a phone call from his daughter — and the decision cost him his life.
As Facey's daughter happily told him that she had found cheap plane tickets for their upcoming family trip to Jamaica, a gunman yanked Facey from his car, shot him in the head and left him dead on the side of the road, officials and family members said.
The accused gunman, Darrell Fuller, 33, who was arrested Tuesday night, had just shot a Nassau County cop to death nearby and was looking for a new getaway car when he attacked Facey near the border between Queens and Nassau counties shortly after 11 a.m., police said.
"His daughter was talking to him on the phone," said Joslyn Cameron, Facey's brother-in-law. "Then she said she heard someone running up to the car. [Facey] made a frightened sound, like, 'Ah!' That was the last anybody heard from him."
Cameron said Facey's daughter, Dahlia Facey, grew distraught when she couldn't reach her father.
"She was telling [Facey's wife] June, 'Something happened to Daddy, something happened to Daddy,'" Cameron said.
Cameron described Raymond Facey, 52, an East New York resident, as a warm-hearted family man who loved music, barbecuing and gardening.
A Jamaica native, Facey had lived in the United States for 28 years and had three daughters and a son, Cameron said. He worked on bridges and tunnels around the city.
The family had planned to return to Jamaica for Christmas, and Dahlia was so excited about finding cheap tickets that she called her father to share the good news, Cameron said.
"He was a great family guy," Cameron said. "All he does is work. He was the victim of a horrible crime. People like that should never die."
Fuller, the suspect, is also accused of shooting and killing 29-year-old Arthur Lopez, a police officer in Nassau County's Emergency Service Unit, during a traffic stop Tuesday morning.
Fuller was arrested after being found in Queens later in the day with apparently self-inflicted gunshot wounds, police said. Fuller has previously served time in prison for attempted murder and selling cocaine, officials said.
Outside Facey's home Tuesday evening, relatives and neighbors mourned their loss.
Paulette Lide, 50, Facey's neighbor, said he always greeted her with a bright hello as he headed to work and she sat on her front stoop enjoying her morning cigarette.
"He was very caring," Lide said. "There wasn't a thing he wouldn't do for anybody."
