Parole Officer Kills Estranged Wife, Injures 2 Bystanders at Courthouse

A parole officer who used his badge to sneak a gun past metal detectors at a courthouse opened fire Friday and killed his estranged wife in a crowded waiting room, police said.

Two bystanders were wounded and others scrambled for safety before the gunman let an unarmed court officer take his weapon. He then waited quietly on a bench for police to arrive.

Max Almonor, 52, went to court because of a dispute with his wife, Danielle, over visiting privileges with their 16-year-old daughter, police Detective John Harkins said. Mrs. Almonor was a federal parole officer.

The couple passed notes as they sat in the waiting room at Family Court in Brooklyn, said Dennis Quirk, head of the state Court Officers Assn.

The couple exchanged words just before Almonor drew his .38-caliber service revolver and shot the 38-year-old woman twice in the head, Harkins said. She was pronounced dead at a hospital.

One other woman was admitted to a hospital in stable condition; another was released after treatment.

Almonor got his gun into the courthouse by flashing his badge, Quirk said. Policy calls for law enforcement officers to keep their guns and badges when in the courthouse on official business, but they are supposed to give up their weapons when attending to personal affairs.

Almonor has been a parole officer for nine years in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn, said David Ernst, a spokesman for the Division of Parole in Albany.

Courthouses around the country have been the scene of deadly violence. Among recent cases: A woman was fatally shot Feb. 24 in the Bronx Criminal Courts building vestibule in retaliation for the slayings of six people. In January, a man opened fire in a hallway in Dallas, killing his wife and wounding a bystander before turning the gun on himself.