Target of Inquiries : Hot Temper of Gun Suspect in Air Crash Told

David A. Burke was an ambitious and generous young man whose cool demeanor could mask a terrible temper.

Many here and in Southern California knew him as a hard-working achiever who, for a college dropout, had acquired surprising trappings of success: fine clothes, a Mercedes-Benz and the attentions of many women.

But as David Augustus Burke’s short life was winding down, it became increasingly troubled and explosive.

Search for a New Start

Before he left Rochester for Los Angeles almost exactly a year ago in search of a new start, he had come under numerous police investigations on allegations of drug dealing and car theft. Friends said he often carried a gun.

Then, in Los Angeles, as a customer service representative for USAir, he allegedly was caught stealing money from the airline, which led to his firing. His personal life also was falling apart. His steady companion reported him to police after he once pulled a gun on her and twice tried to strangle her.

Burke, 35, was born in London, the son of Jamaican immigrants. His father, a taxi driver, was someone who knew his way around Greater Rochester International Airport.

In high school Burke was the guy who always had a job. Later, he got a real estate license, did landscaping and, in the winter, plowed snow from driveways, all in addition to his career at USAir.

It was also in high school that Burke met Jo Ann Smith, one of six women with whom he would have a total of 11 children.

For a time, he attended the State University of New York at Binghamton and later worked for a brief time at National Airport in Washington.

Friends in Rochester said he was not openly violent, but neither was he the kind to turn the other cheek. “You start it; he’ll finish it,” said Vicki Bennett-Brinson.

Petty Larcency Case

The Rochester Police Department said the only criminal record Burke had was a 1984 petty larceny conviction that stemmed from a shoplifting incident.

But in 1984 and 1985, Burke was investigated as a “major link” in a narcotics trafficking operation at the airport, where he worked for USAir from 1972 to 1986, according to Dale Anderson, a special agent in charge of the FBI’s Rochester office. The probe ended with more than 50 arrests and led to several convictions, but Burke was not charged.

Rochester police had received a tip that Burke was receiving packages at the airport containing cocaine. The department obtained a search warrant but turned up nothing.

Still, friends said, Burke was deeply embarrassed by being led away in handcuffs from the job he loved.

Even as he left town, he was the target of another police drug investigation, said Rochester Police Chief Gordon Erlacher. Burke also was a suspect in an ongoing FBI car theft investigation, the agency said.

Younger Brother Died

Another traumatic Rochester experience for Burke came when he found his younger brother Joseph dead from a heroin overdose. Burke had tried to help his brother for some time, and he stoically blamed himself for his brother’s death, according to Smith, his one-time girlfriend.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Smith said that for weeks Burke failed to release his pent-up feelings--until one day he finally erupted into a fit of sobs.

In the wake of Monday’s crash, some who knew Burke still refused on Wednesday to believe that he got on PSA Flight 1771 with his mind made up to kill himself and 42 others.

There is no way, they said, that someone so ambitious and so confident would react so madly to the loss of a job.

“I can’t see him hurting somebody over that job,” said Bennett-Brinson, 36, who had known Burke since he was a 12-year-old newspaper boy in Rochester. “I don’t think he would have become angry enough to kill somebody or kill himself. The David I know could not have done something like that,” she said.

Saw the Other Side

But others--in California, especially--saw the other side of Burke.

Just four days before he boarded the San Francisco-bound flight, Burke pulled a gun on his girlfriend, Jacqueline Camacho, according to a Hawthorne police report.

When she and her daughter arrived home at 1 a.m. on Dec. 4, Burke confronted them with a pistol in the parking structure, Camacho told police. He then drove them around for a while before they all went back to Camacho’s apartment.

Camacho said Burke harassed them for a time and then fell asleep. He left about 7 a.m.

A month earlier, the 5-foot, 2-inch, 120-pound Camacho--representing herself in Torrance Superior Court--had won a temporary restraining order that barred Burke from coming within 100 yards of her or her home. Burke, 35, was 5-foot-10 and weighed about 200 pounds.

Camacho sought the order after Burke twice attempted to strangle her, deliberately damaged her car and tore her clothes, according to court documents. In them, Camacho said:

“On 16th of Oct., he dragged me out of bed and to the living room and tried to choke me. He squeezed my throat until I couldn’t breathe and then let go. He tried doing the same thing the following morning. . . . I asked him to take his things and leave. On the 18th he came back and cut the wire in my car that caused the car to stall out. He admits doing that. Also on the 19th he returned again and stole the garage remote opener that left me without access to get in and out of my garage. He cut up a few of my clothes and has admitted to doing all of the above.”

There also had been domestic squabbles in Rochester serious enough to have involved police. According to a one-time neighbor, Al Nitto, Burke once “blew out all the windows in his garage door” during such a spat.

Yet Burke prided himself on taking care of his women and children. “If he had $20, he would give me $10 to help with the baby,” said Smith, who said they ended their 14-year relationship in 1984.

Loved His Daughter

In particular, other friends said, he loved his daughter Sabrina, 13, and brought her to California.

His affection for his children is one reason friends in Rochester found his apparent suicide so difficult to accept.

“David would never have left his daughter out there hanging,” said Terry Stith-Myer, 34, who grew up with Burke in the middle-class southwest Rochester neighborhood. “This guy always took care of his babies,” she said.

Friends said Burke owned a duplex in Rochester. One of the units was occupied by one of his girlfriends and four of his children. The other was occupied by the family of Burke’s late brother Joseph.

Stith-Myer’s sister Deborah said, “He wanted what most people hope to have: to leave something for his kids.”

‘Want to Settle Down’

Burke told friends that he hoped to get ahead with USAir by getting away from his problems in Rochester. “I’m tired of all this,” he told Deborah Stith-Myer. “I’m getting older. I want to settle down. I want to get away from the pressures and headaches here.”

For a brief time, it might have seemed to Burke’s friends in Rochester that he would find happiness in Southern California.

In one recent telephone call from Long Beach, Burke told Deborah Stith-Myer that he was adjusting well to life in California.

But soon there were new problems at work.

On July 15, Burke appeared at the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing in Los Angeles to complain that he had twice been passed over by USAir for a $43,000-a-year job as customer service supervisor, the same job that he had in Rochester.

Didn’t Press Complaint

“He questioned whether it was because of race,” said Carol Schiller, Los Angeles regional administrator of the agency. But after telling his story to an investigator, Burke never returned to press his complaint.

Apparently he complained to few about being fired by USAir for stealing aircraft cocktail sales receipts. In fact, he told his family that he had only been suspended, according to Deborah Stith-Myer.

“He was fighting it,” she said. “He told his father he was going to a hearing. He said he would call when it was over. His father was waiting for him to call.”

Phillip Dixon reported from Rochester and Frederick M. Muir reported from Los Angeles.