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foreign [Music] [Music] as an undercover I spent approximately 18 months walking the streets of Queens
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doing prostitution the only difference was that I was working undercover and this was their
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actual life but we had a lot of similar stories to hear their stories and not able to
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talk to them about my story and how I survived it was heartbreaking a lot of the times
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my name is Katrina cook Brownlee and when I was 22 years old I lived with my ex-fiancee in a house of horror
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I don't remember not having a black eye whether it been the right one the left one it was a busted lip
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it was always something that's why Shades became a signature for me I called the police on him several times
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he was at New York City correction officer then every time he would flash that badge and every time he flashed that
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badge they would walk away that badge was much more important than my life she got to the point where she feared
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for her safety and the safety of her kids and that's when she decided no more but
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when the decision was made to leave the risk factor for Katrina went through the
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roof my name is Carrie Herzog in January of 1993 I was an assistant district attorney
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I don't think she in any way could have foreseen what was going to happen to her when she came through that
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door [Music] he opened the door and he just had like a weird look on his face of a strange
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and he pointed a gun to me and said this is the day you die [ __ ] and he shot me in my stomach
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and then he shot me again and he emptied the gun after the first five reloaded and proceeded to shoot her
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again five more times each time he would say to Katrina are you ready to die Katrina bang is this
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the day you're going to die Katrina Bang you know you deserve this Katrina Bang this was a man on a mission and he was
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armed and deadly this could have easily been a homicide but because of Katrina's will to live
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and will to survive it wasn't God had a whole different plan for me my story starts from a very dark place
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and it becomes a story of Grace story of love and a story of Hope [Music] why did you want to become a cop I
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wanted to become a good cop there's a difference yeah a good cop has empathy a good cop cares
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about people that they have to protect and have to serve I was a great cop [Applause]
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[Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] this is the photograph that says suffering to me
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forget opening the case File this shows a path of blood through the living room and bleeding into the adjacent room it
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literally took my breath away Carrie rushed to the Intensive Care Unit at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital on Long
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Island as soon as she learned the victim was still alive there was a horror show
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unfolding right before my eyes the first thing that came to my head is how did this woman even survive
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in the afternoon of January 9 1993 a car came screeching up to brookhaven's emergency room entrance the driver
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hurriedly put a woman in a wheelchair and pushed her in the door then sped off that woman was Katrina cook Brownlee
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barely conscious and riddled with bullets the 22 year old mother of two somehow managed to tell authorities who
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did this to her and where he lived that's the house that's the house right there
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lead detective Raymond blasko raced to the house where a man calmly opened the door and said I was expecting you
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it was Katrina's ex-fiancee Alex Irvin I proceeded to arrest him at that point the crime scene indicated a
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violent brutal attack and that the victim during it was moving around from room to room trying to get away during
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the attack the floor of the bathroom there's a lot of blood on everything in the bathroom that shows extensive
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bleeding because of the blood loss I did not believe she would survive neither did the Young assistant EA
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Kerry took a dying declaration from Katrina at the hospital to use his evidence for a grand jury
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her voice was just above a whisper each breath took a certain amount of labor on her part but she was able to do
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what we needed to have her do I didn't think I'd ever see her again but Carrie didn't know just who she
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Trina had been beating the odds most of her life right there that was my bedroom right
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there Katrina was a killing 18 year old projects in thought would get her the house with a
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white picket fence she'd always dreamed of a correction officer on New York's notorious Rikers Island
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it was Alex Irvin so when I get into this relationship with this person it's a way out to where
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was in survival mode and he had a car wasn't used to riding around in a fancy car
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he was a correction officer he had a job he had a great a good a career a gun so
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to me it was like okay my man got a gun he got a good job I'm from the projects and look at me
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you thought you escaped correct right that's what I'm thinking like I'm winning when actually I was losing
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Katrina says he showed his violent temper almost immediately I swear began here out in those streets
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and yeah he would beat you in the street oh yeah Katrina knew she should end it but says
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her grandmother the only adult in her life she trusted convinced her to stay my grandmother said to me you know this
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man has a job and he can provide for you and you have a daughter and he's willing
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to take on your daughter and to take care of you and I think that this is something you should try to consider
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so when your grandmother tells you that then you think well maybe you know what maybe I should do this this is knowing
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that he had physically assaulted you [Music] how do you see that now was the worst advice that I could have
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ever got they soon had a baby together a girl Katrina's second daughter but Katrina
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says it didn't stop the beatings what would spark his anger um maybe it was just a bad day at Rikers
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Allen maybe I didn't want to have sex with him maybe the baby was crying maybe I had on something he didn't like
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to see me in he was that abusive yeah it was that abusive Katrina says she called 9-1-1 several
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times every time that I called the police on him they either would come and tell us to work it out or he would have
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a separate conversation either outside or in the room with them and they would walk away she called it the blue wall of
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Silence the minute they saw his badge she says they left after a while Katrina says she
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stopped calling I had no respect for cops I had no respect for them at all in 1992 Alex Irvin moved Katrina and the
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two girls from Brooklyn to a small house in Medford Long Island but she says the abuse continued and
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only got worse finally after five years of getting beaten black and blue Katrina said
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enough I was pregnant and I said to myself I'm not bringing another child into this toxic violent
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relationship with this man and that I am going to save my money get some strength from somewhere somehow
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and get out of this relationship and that's what I did Katrina and her daughters moved to a
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local motel but after a month she ran out of money desperate she called Alex Irvin Katrina says he was like a
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different person and even offered to help her get back on her feet we talk and were friendly with one another
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something that I had never experienced with him ever you were hopeful yeah and I didn't think he was clever enough to
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like try to set me up on January 9th Katrina says she walked straight into a trap she left her older daughter with a
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neighbor and went with her younger daughter to Irvine's house this is what she told us happened next a
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warning you may find it disturbing he opened the door and he just had like a weird look on his face of a strange
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I went to place my youngest daughter in her bed because she was asleep and as soon as I came out
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he shot me in my stomach and then he shot me again fell back on our couch and I looked down
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and my stomach had flattened and I wasn't like bleeding and I said to him I'm like why am I not bleeding
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and I remember him saying shut up and down I remember trying to get up and crawl
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and he shot me in my arm here I remember picking up the phone and trying to call 9-1-1 the phone lines
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were cut you're in the living room they're crawling on the floor like a dog remember I looked up to him and
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he took his foot and he kicked me in my face this man tortured me fortunately tortured me
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foreign [Music] this was an angry angry man Alex Irvin didn't just want Katrina dead
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says Carrie Herzog he wanted her to suffer you can almost hear the defendant saying it ain't over
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till I say it's over he was mocking her as he was firing on her is this the bullet that's going to do it
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Katrina and he was in no hurry says Katrina when she could no longer crawl he put
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her in the bed and covered her gunshot wounds with Band-Aids at one point he carried her to the
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bathroom leaving behind a blood-stained blueprint of the attack this didn't happen like within light
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20 minutes or 30 this was like a long period of time that he's torturing me and shooting me
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over the course of an hour and a half the correction officer emptied his service revolver two times at the
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pregnant mother of two and ultimately he shot me 10 times Alex Irvin had planned for everything
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says Katrina the locked doors and windows the cut phone line everything but a knock on the door
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as Katrina lay bleeding on the floor There Was An Unexpected visit by a family friend of Katrina's fiancee and
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upon entering the home he looked at something which can only be described as something out of the Texas Chainsaw
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Massacre according to the friend statement to police Alex Irvin told him he had shot
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Katrina and then he flipped out Irvin then LED his young friend only 20 at the time to the bathroom Katrina was
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lying face down on the bathroom floor Panic the young man picked her up and carried her to the car Irvin helped him
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put Katrina in the back seat the two men headed to the hospital with the friend driving
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the entire way Katrina was in and out of Consciousness and he was begging her to
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hold on that they were close to getting help don't go Katrina don't go it was the young man who put Katrina in the
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wheelchair that day her wounds still covered with Band-Aids if he hadn't come by that house I wouldn't be talking to
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you I would not be talking to you Katrina was rushed into surgery as soon as she got to the hospital after the
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attack multiple operations followed in the days ahead the doctors were unable to remove six of
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the bullets that it entered her body says Carrie the placement removal could have been more dangerous to her than
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leaving the bullets in place after days of drifting in and out of Consciousness Katrina finally woke up
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the first thing I wanted to know where was my baby that I was having with my children that was the first thing I said
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there she was having been brutalized and her first concern was for her children it made me want to cry it makes me want
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to cry right now Katrina was told her two daughters were safe and staying with a relative sadly
00:17:36
Katrina says the baby she was carrying a boy didn't make it most of the injuries
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were concentrated between her chest and her pelvis and it became evident that future children were were not going to
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be in the cards for for Katrina that wasn't all says Carrie she was very limited in her Mobility there were
00:18:04
concerns that she might not be able to walk again Katrina remembers the day the doctor
00:18:11
delivered the Grim news I said what when you say that and I'm not gonna walk again and never have a normal life like
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what does that mean and he said you know you you're gonna be confined to a wheelchair
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and you'll have people to have to take care of you and then I said to him I don't have
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anybody to take care of me I'm homeless I don't I don't have a place to live I said I didn't have a place to live
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before I came here and you're thinking what am I going to do was it fear desperation at your Wood's end or
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all of that wrapped up into one yeah I mean I'm now I'm really all alone I really am
00:19:04
Rock Bottom I'm at the lowest place that I think a human being can be in at that
00:19:10
point sun is murdered can't take care of your children you have nowhere to live you have no family it doesn't get no
00:19:22
worse than that [Music] Alex Irvin's mother let Katrina move into her house in Brooklyn
00:19:31
unoccupied at the time Katrina had round-the-clock care and daily sessions with the speech and physical therapist
00:19:38
but deeply depressed she refused to work at her therapy Katrina fell into a hole
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that was so deep and so wide that she couldn't see bottom and she couldn't see side to side then one day her physical
00:19:56
therapist gave her hope that she would fully recover he said I believe something tells me that you're going to
00:20:04
walk again and I don't know what it was that day gave me the will gave me the hope that it
00:20:10
would be done and I started from the wheelchair then I went to the Walker and then I went to a
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cane and then I started to walk so that was a process Katrina devoted her entire
00:20:23
being to showing the doctors she could get better so what were the things they said you couldn't do I wasn't going to
00:20:30
walk again I wasn't going to have a normal life again so you went check right it was like check check
00:20:39
check check she also checked off another box self-esteem I started to believe in
00:20:46
myself I started to build up who I was as a person but the fates weren't done with Katrina
00:20:55
cook Brownlee he was about to be tested yet again [Music] there were many stops along the way that
00:21:24
could have derailed Katrina cook brownlee's Journey out of Darkness Katrina says that getting thrown out of
00:21:31
Alex Irvin's mother's house in Brooklyn while still recovering was one of them she asked me to write a letter stating
00:21:39
that I shot myself 10 times so that her son did not go to jail when Katrina refused she says the mother
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booted her to the street I became even more homeless I don't know how much homeless you could be but then I really
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became homeless I am standing in front of a shelter and where I used to live Katrina who by then
00:22:03
had her two girls back ended up in this homeless shelter on the Lower East Side of New York rats were there roaches was
00:22:11
there it was really really bad here really bad what is going through your head as you were looking at your two
00:22:17
daughters I'm in survival mode everything for me at this point is survival stay alive
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just stay alive protect my girls protect my girls because I felt like I had already failed
00:22:31
they didn't choose him I chose him you know Katrina says the shelter was so filthy she wouldn't use
00:22:39
the bathroom I remember putting my youngest daughter in the sink in McDonald's to bathe her and me as a
00:22:47
grown woman having to wash up and at a thing while Katrina and her girls were struggling to survive
00:22:57
[Music] Carrie Herzog was methodically building a strong case against Alex Irvin I was
00:23:05
going to do everything in my power to bring Justice to Katrina I fought for her tooth and nail
00:23:18
operating with the prosecution started backing away Kerry discovered that Alex Irvin against court orders had been
00:23:26
calling and threatening Katrina from jail I wanted to rain down on him with the white hot intensity of a thousand
00:23:36
suns the arrogance for him to be having this conversation with her from inside the jail was outrageous
00:23:48
he needs to pay but then the defense presented this letter to the judge purportedly written
00:23:54
by Katrina herself I Katrina cook the victim in this case has decided that I don't want to press charges due to
00:24:03
duress at the time of my accident this is a woman who had been shot 10 times and here she's portraying it as an
00:24:12
accident and then the icing on the cake if I am subpoenaed to court I will testify on the defendant's behalf
00:24:20
I was horrified but I wasn't necessarily surprised Katrina had already been placed in the position of nearly seeing
00:24:30
her life ended if she showed any cooperation with me or the court it could be worse for her years later
00:24:38
Katrina would tell Carrie she did not write that letter but at the time Carrie was convinced she had she got Katrina on
00:24:48
the phone she said I'm not coming in I'm not going to talk about it in fact I'm going to disappear and
00:24:57
you're never going to find me rage was starting to build up inside of me I let out this Bellow and said
00:25:07
Katrina I will hunt you down like a dog if I have to and then she hung up on me Carrie didn't expect Katrina to appear
00:25:23
in court but even without her star witness Carrie believes she would win a conviction
00:25:32
in April 1994 one year and three months after the attack jury selection began they were on day four when suddenly the
00:25:42
courtroom door flew open I turn around and I I see her she's in a brightly colored dress and her presence that day
00:25:53
actually made me gasp out loud I never ever expected her to appear but there she was I had decided that I'm
00:26:04
gonna walk in this courtroom and whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen I didn't even look at him
00:26:13
I wasn't giving him that power because at that point I had got back my power and got back my control so I wasn't even
00:26:19
gonna look at him he didn't even matter to me I think that the defendant saw the
00:26:24
whites of her eyes that day and knew that the game was over and she was going to
00:26:33
do whatever she needed to do to take him down it was back she was back with a vengeance
00:26:42
soon after Alex Irvin pled guilty to all charges attempted murder in the second degree assault in the first degree and
00:26:52
criminal use of a firearm there would be no trial his sentence was now in the hands of the judge I was very angry that
00:27:02
he took the plea she was a little angry I think than I was she lost her mind I was
00:27:09
calming her down because I told I said I've been through this already ain't not gonna happen to him he got that Shield
00:27:17
is nothing gonna happen to him Carrie made an impassioned plea to the judge to give Katrina's abuser a minimum of 20
00:27:24
years behind bars but the judge did not heed Carrie's pleas he gave Alex Irvin the lightest sentence possible 5 to 15
00:27:34
years after hearing that it was almost a Blind Fury that that took over me I gathered up my belongings and returned
00:27:46
to my office and I kicked my garbage can from one end of the office to the other
00:27:54
and I actually kept that garbage can for the rest of my career with this huge dent in its side
00:28:00
Carrie couldn't deliver the sentence they both wanted but she did deliver something perhaps even more important
00:28:07
nobody of a kid enough to fight for me she fought for me when I couldn't fight for myself she gave me hope when I
00:28:15
didn't have hope for myself I'm grateful to her [Music] thank you what do you think of the prison sentence
00:28:28
that Alex Irvin received go inside the case at 48hours.com [Music] would be killer in prison
00:28:49
Katrina cook Brownlee focused on her future a future that included a job at a very unlikely place the New York City
00:28:58
Police Department [Music] so the criminal justice system failed you they failed me and then you go and
00:29:06
enter the criminal justice system yeah that was logical for you yeah I was like nope I'm doing it you could have
00:29:14
knocked me over with a feather no one was more surprised than Katrina's former Advocate and now friend Carrie
00:29:23
Herzog Katrina and I actually talked about why she would join the police department
00:29:31
and one of the things she mentioned that you know the best way to change a system is from the inside
00:29:39
out a system that Katrina says repeatedly turned its back on her when she'd call 9-1-1 after being beaten in
00:29:47
the years before she was shot Katrina wanted to become what she says she needed all those years ago a good
00:29:56
cop [Music] why not why wouldn't I want to help protect and serve just because I didn't
00:30:07
receive it um it doesn't mean that I shouldn't want to help others [Music] in July 2001 eight and a half years
00:30:19
after her brutal attack Katrina was one of 1600 new recruits sworn in at the nypd's police academy they would go on
00:30:28
to be known as the 911 class when just two months into training Katrina and her fellow police Cadets became First
00:30:36
Responders on September 11th that was like one of the times where I was like uh maybe I don't think I can do this
00:30:44
[Music] other people that was in the academy also you know we always feeling the same
00:30:52
and I think we just basically was going off of each other's strength as Katrina started a new life within the
00:31:00
criminal justice system Alex Irvin the correction officer turned convict was released from prison after
00:31:09
serving 10 years Carrie recalls Katrina's reaction it was almost a sigh of of resignation when the time finally
00:31:20
came up I was at the beginning of my career and I wanted to really just put the energy
00:31:26
into that and not into him coming out from the start Katrina sought out a tough assignment going undercover in
00:31:35
Brooklyn and Queens even adopting this cigar smoking Persona to catch drug dealers
00:31:42
anything that would eat entailed undercover I did it anything anything so it puts you in some dangerous
00:31:50
situations oh absolutely I asked myself why would would someone who's been through what Katrina has been
00:31:59
through put herself into that situation and then I think what can anyone do to scare her at this stage of her life
00:32:11
she was right at death's door and came through right now we are on a strip that I used
00:32:21
to work when I was in Vice doing undercover work and this was kind of like home to me
00:32:29
many days many nights though the mission was to arrest pimpson those soliciting prostitution Katrina felt a connection
00:32:37
to the women she encountered being out there um in the streets I realized that each and every one of these young ladies
00:32:46
were or me in some form or fashion it allowed me to realize how it was important for me to do my work to the
00:32:57
best of my ability while I was out there [Music] after five hard years working Undercover
00:33:06
on the streets Katrina took to the streets again as a Community Affairs officer I just felt that I had so much
00:33:14
that I could give back being a police officer despite being the good cop she had
00:33:22
always wanted to be Katrina worried that the secret of her past would hurt her career so you're on your dream job
00:33:29
you're doing a great job and yet you're living with always the fear of being discovered correct your
00:33:39
past my past coming back to haunt you yeah every single day I went to work I always
00:33:44
thought that you never shared the secret so it was painful not to be able to [Music]
00:33:53
painful because Katrina believes that the traumas she suffered would have made some at the NYPD question if she was fit
00:34:00
to serve I don't want her on this job she's a domestic violence she may go off and kill somebody she might not be
00:34:08
mentally stable though still in fear of being outed Katrina forged ahead becoming a
00:34:16
detective first grade the nypd's highest investigative rank it wasn't many women that were first
00:34:24
grade detectives [Music] no one handed anything to Katrina what Katrina has done she has earned
00:34:37
it's still amazing to me now to think about progress that she made and not not just progress success
00:34:48
she and I have talked about it that success is the best revenge and Katrina wasn't done yet
00:34:56
[Applause] never ever ever give up on yourself I don't care who's against you believe in yourself
00:35:22
[Music] Katrina cook Brownlee had spent a lifetime defying the odds climbing out
00:35:32
of poverty surviving a near fatal attack walking after believing she would never
00:35:38
walk again and in the final years of her NYPD career she would Buck the odds once
00:35:45
again when you were growing up in Brooklyn did you ever expect you would be working at
00:35:53
the mayor's Mansion oh enough not even even remotely close in 2014 Katrina became one of the few
00:36:03
black women in NYPD history assigned to protect a New York city mayor when she was chosen to serve on Mayor Bill De
00:36:11
Blasio's Advanced security detail you're just one step ahead I'm just one step ahead if I if I'm walking into a
00:36:19
ditch he's gonna follow me into that dish right if I'm walking into the sunset he coming in that sunset
00:36:26
in 2021 after 20 years on the force Katrina retired from the NYPD in our last meeting with the mayor she
00:36:37
finally opened up about something she had been hiding for decades her past [Music]
00:36:46
and I said um well Mr Mayor I wrote a book and he said well what is the book about and I said well um Mr may I got
00:36:55
shot 10 times and he took a deep breath and he was like but you never said anything and I said
00:37:05
he wasn't I wasn't supposed to she was carrying around a secret and now she has been unburdened
00:37:16
I think people looking at you would never have an inkling that you had lived the life you've lived I often wonder and
00:37:24
ask myself that do I look like this has happened to me you know and I have scars right
00:37:30
um so for a long time the scars used to bother me so I put tattoos on my stomach so that when I
00:37:39
looked in the mirror when I'm getting dressed I didn't see it if I may be so bold to ask what are your
00:37:44
tattoos roses there's a bunch of roses and flowers because that's why I feel like that's
00:37:55
what I became Katrina has also found a way to let go of the emotional scars in spite of
00:38:05
everything that has happened to me Ryan I forgive [Music] I forgive you forgave your assailant
00:38:14
your abuser yeah ah I had to I had to forgive you so I can get back my control so I can
00:38:23
get back my power and so that I could have a peace Within Myself there's no peace when you Harbor in
00:38:32
Anger when you're mad there's no peace in that you remember when she was young yes I
00:38:41
remember her we went back with Katrina to the projects where she had grown up I remember when you was growing up with
00:38:49
your grandmother she's moved away but not so far that she has forgotten all the other katrinas who
00:38:59
are now where she once was um what's next for you um just to tell my story and um
00:39:09
to continue to work on my organization with my girls young ladies of our future Katrina's organization has been
00:39:17
mentoring young ladies for the past 10 years you don't want any other girl or woman
00:39:24
to ever ever ever have to go through five percent of what I went through [Music]
00:39:37
if you build and you teach and give young people these tools you save them every single time oh you
00:39:46
know I'm checking report cards she has that helping Gene in her this is what I have to give to
00:39:53
these girls is love oh God she is offering help that surpasses what she had how does the Katrina sitting here today
00:40:07
differ from that 22 year old Katrina oh wow the 22 year old Katrina was lost broken
00:40:20
forgotten violated at the lowest point that a person can be and now today I feel like I am a
00:40:33
beautiful black Queen that fought the fight [Music] a young woman vanishes her missing phone
00:40:57
could provide critical Clues just one problem a needle in a haystack and a huge moving body of water how can police
00:41:04
do what seems impossible I think I got the phone 48 Hours next on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus
00:41:14
thank you