STATEN ISLAND — The reputed gang leader who shot a firefighter after U.S. Marshals tried to arrest him at his Staten Island home Friday wrote to a judge in 2013 that he did not want federal officers “banging on my door again, so set a clear line and I WILL NOT cross it as [I] build my life,” according to court papers.
Garland Tyree, 38, wrote the letter to Judge Raymond Dearie asking that his supervised release not be revoked after he was caught attending a 2012 Bloods meeting where an associate shot himself in the knee in order to leave the gang, court documents read.
“Although its [sic] obvious that there are those that may not agree with me, but I feel that I deserve the chance to live my life,” Tyree wrote, “I don’t deny my past or embrace it, it is what it is, but my future will be bright.”
Tyree used similar language when he spoke with DNAinfo over the phone during the standoff.
"I’m a person that takes life as it comes. It is what it is," he said. "I’m at peace."
The man — who allegedly set off a smoke grenade in his home after marshals tried to arrest him for parole violation early Friday morning and then shot responding FDNY Lieutenant James Hayes twice — told the judge that he had volunteered for disgraced former state senator Shirley Huntley and for the South East Queens Young Democrats.
Tyree also wrote a “children’s brook” titled “The Trey Way,” which denounced gang membership, according to another letter his lawyer wrote to the judge.
He had also volunteered for the community-based organization “100 Suites for 100 Men,” which helps formerly incarcerated men find jobs, his lawyer wrote.
Tyree had 18 prior arrests, including being charged with homicide when he was 16.
The shooting happened at a sweet sixteen party when “an armed neighborhood rapist and robber” shot Tyree twice, he said in the letter.
“He shot me and I killed him,” he wrote.
A jury found that Tyree had acted in self-defense and he pleaded guilty to weapons possession.
He admitted to getting into a “lot of trouble" in jail, according to court documents.
“i’ve [sic] never been one who liked bullies or allowed bullying to happen around me, and this caused me to have problems with the gangs that ran [Rikers Island]."
He slashed several inmates with razors, including rival gang members, according to court documents.
Tyree claimed to have ended his involvement with the Bloods by 1999.
He also asked the judge to give him a “clear understanding of what gang or gang members” he should avoid.
Tyree eventually made it out of the halfway house to the Destiny Court apartment and created a publishing company to distribute his book.
Then on Friday, the marshals again came knocking on his door all over again.
