Victim Had Been Cop, Gulf War Vet
By David Gambacorta and Simone Weichselbaum, Philadelphia Daily News
Feb. 14–Robert Norris had made a career out of being calm and courageous in the face of danger.
Norris, 41, survived a stint in the Gulf War and then returned home to serve 14 years on the New Castle County, Del., police force, earning the respect and admiration of nearly everyone with whom he came into contact.
Friends say he retired from the force and pursued a safer career as vice president of business development for New York-based Watson International.
In a horrible twist of irony, Norris was killed Monday night in a Navy Yard office building when Vincent J. Dortch, whom police called a disgruntled investor, went on a murderous rampage before turning a gun on himself.
“No one had a bad thing to say about Bob,” said New Castle County police Cpl. Trinidad Navarro, a longtime friend. “He was probably the strongest person, physically and emotionally, that I have ever known.
“It seems somewhat ironic that he serves as a police officer for 14 years and doesn’t suffer a scratch,” Navarro said in a televised news conference. “And then he chooses what’s perceived to be a safer career path and this is what happened.”
Besides Norris, of Newark, Del., two other men were murdered Monday night and a third was critically injured. The victims:
–Mark David Norris, 46, of Pilesgrove, N.J., Robert Norris’ older brother, was the president and chief executive of Zigzag Net Inc., the primary occupant of the office building where the shootings occurred.
–James Reif, 42, of Endicott, N.Y., who according to several reports spent seven years working in the Broome County, N.Y., Sheriff’s Department. He was a high- school friend of both Norris brothers.
–Patrick Sweeney, 31, of Maple Shade, N.J., an accountant who worked for Zigzag but who had nothing to do with Dortch’s dispute over money, said Homicide Lt. Phil Riehl. Still, Dortch shot Sweeney multiple times at close range with an AK pistol, cops said. He was listed in critical condition yesterday at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
–Two other investors were tied up with duct tape by Dortch but were not injured. Police sources said they believe that Dortch ultimately would have killed both men because they had witnessed the shootings.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Philadelphia Daily News
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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