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Domestic abuse victim and retired NYPD officer Katrina Brownlee is finally opening up about her traumatic past, a secret she has carried around for decades. Brownlee shares about the fortunate escape she made on January 9, 1993, after she was shot 10 times by her abusive fiance, a Rikers Island corrections officer, Alex Irvin, after having endured years of domestic, physical, and s*xual abuse.
Brownlee, who was pregnant with her third child at the time, was found barely conscious in Irvin's Medford, Long Island, home by a friend of his family, who made an unexpected visit and found the horrific crime scene. The young friend, accompanied by the offender, then rushed the mother-of-two to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital in the afternoon hours before speeding off.
CBS 48 Hours will have Michelle Miller report on Katrina Brownlee's baffling case this Saturday, April 8, in an episode titled Katrina Brownlee: The Good Cop. The synopsis states:
"Her ex-fiancé — an officer with a badge — nearly killed her. She says police failed to protect her, so she got her own badge."
The upcoming episode airs on the channel at 9:00 pm ET on April 8, 2023.
When did Katrina Brownlee first meet Alex Irvin, then-correction officer on Rikers Island?
Katrina Brownlee first met Alex Irvin, a corrections officer on New York's Rikers Island, in 1988 and soon started dating him, thinking that he was the man who would provide her and her daughter with security and pictured a perfect family with him. At the time, Brownlee was a struggling 18-year-old single mother living in the Brevoort Projects. But a world of trauma and abuse awaited her.
Brownlee revealed that "he [Irvin] showed his violent temper almost immediately," claiming that it started in the street where he would beat her publicly, and although she reported his behavior to authorities and called 911 multiple times, no action was taken against him as the cops would leave immediately after seeing his badge.
They soon had a baby girl, after which Irvin moved them to a small house in Medford, Long Island, but the abuse reportedly continued. Their new home soon turned into a house of horrors for Katrina Brownlee. However, in 1992, after five years of enduring abuse, she decided to leave her fiance and move to a local motel with both of her daughters. She was pregnant with her third child at the time.
But on January 9, 1993, Brownlee returned to the Medford house and walked straight into a trap where Alex Irvin stood armed with his service revolver. As soon as she entered the house, the shooting began. Irvin shot the pregnant 22-year-old five times and then loaded the gun for a second time before firing five more shots. She claimed he was torturing and mocking her every time he fired a shot at her.
Katrina Brownlee survived the near-death experience because of an unexpected guest
Reports state that Alex Irvin had planned everything for the trap. The doors and windows were locked and the phone lines were cut, which completely severed Katrina Brownlee's connection to the outside world. The shooter put band-aids on her bullet wounds and watched her crawl until she couldn't anymore and then carried her to the bathroom.
Fortunately for one of Irvin's family friends, a 20-year-old man arrived at the house unexpectedly and found the grisly crime scene. He then found Brownlee barely conscious, lying face-down on the bathroom floor. The man picked her up, carried her to the car, and loaded the five-month-pregnant mother into the backseat with Irvin's assistance. The two men then drove to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital.
At the hospital, Katrina Brownlee was rushed to surgery immediately and after multiple operations in the days that followed, she finally woke up. She lost her child in the process and doctors failed to remove six of the bullets that had entered her body. Initially, doctors declared that she might not be able to walk again, but she made a full recovery in the years that followed.
Was Brownlee's former fiance and corrections officer Alex Irvin even convicted in her attempted murder case?
Katrina Brownlee, along with Assistant District Attorney Keri Herzog, built the case against her former fiance Alex Irvin, defying all odds and emerging victorious - although not to the extent that they had expected. He entered a guilty plea and was given a minimum sentence of 5 to 15 years in prison.
In 2001, the attempted-murder survivor started pursuing a career in one of the most unlikely places - the New York City Police Department - in hopes of becoming the "good cop" she so desperately desired in the years when she was being abused by a law enforcement officer and ignored by many others.
Brownlee excelled in her career, went undercover, worked in the Community Affairs office and became Detective First-Grade, NYPD's highest investigative rank. She joined New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's advanced security detail in 2014, becoming one of the handful of black women in NYPD history to have served in the position. Katrina left the NYPD in 2021 after 20 years in the force.
CBS 48 Hours will further delve into the case this Saturday.
