Shot dead on Douglass St. – Night watchman is slain on the job; cops hunt for suspects • Brooklyn Paper

Cops are pulling out all the stops in their search for the man who killed a security guard as he manned his post at a city-owned pool, officials said.

Police said that someone shot Brownsville resident Damien Bowles, 34, just outside the Douglass Street pool in the Thomas Geene Playground.

Officials said that Bowles was the night watchman at the pool, located at the corner of Third Avenue and Nevins Street, during its last week of operation before being closed for the season.

According to police and published reports, the unidentified gunman shot Bowles in the neck during a skirmish at the corner of Degraw Street and Third Avenue at 10 p.m. on August 28.

The shooting could have been connected to an argument between Bowles and another man at a late night grocery earlier that evening, officials surmised.

Bowles was rushed to Long Island College Hospital, where he died of his injuries a short time later.

Police sources said Wednesday, that, so far, no one has been arrested in the killing.

“Right now, we’re just covering all the bases,” the police source said.

The Douglass Street pool is one of 54 public pools in the city.

Officials said that the pool had been closed for some time when the shooting took place, since they’re opened from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.

Area residents looking to use the pool this past Labor Day weekend found shuttered gates because of the ongoing investigation.

The pool was officially closed after Labor Day and won’t re-open until June, 2009.

Calls to the Parks Department for a comment about Bowles death was not returned as this paper went to press.

His killing marked the third murder to be investigated in Park Slope’s 78th Precinct since the beginning of the summer.

Just last month, police arrested the person responsible for killing a homeless man in Prospect Park in July.

Late last month, a one-legged prostitute living in the Wyckoff Houses – located just down the block from the Douglass Street pool – was killed in her apartment building hallway, police said. Her killer was still at large as this paper went to press.