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The crazed gunman, who blew away a Staten Island business partner, was convinced the victim had stolen his ideas for developing military-grade flashlights, police said today.
Before police killed Ilya Iglanov, 48, yesterday afternoon, the pistol-packing lunatic fatally shot Semyon Levin, 52, and wounded the victim’s wife.
The flash point for yesterday’s violence came from a high-stakes business dispute between Iglanov and Levin, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
‘‘We believe that there was a dispute between two of them,’’ Kelly said.
‘‘They worked together and the report that we have now is that the shooter, the perpetrator in this case, had developed a patent for a military-style flashlight and that this information was either stolen or [the patent was attempted to be stolen].’’
Levin’s wife Marina Tartakovskaya, 45, was wounded in the stomach, during the attack in their home at 115 Collyer Ave. in Annadale, according to cops.
Levin and Tartakovskaya ran a business developing military-grade flashlights.
The victims’ family members told cops that Iglanov believed the couple had cheated him out of his savings and cut him out of a lucrative flashlight patent, according to police.
‘‘The dispute was over this development of this military-style flashlight, that somehow he was robbed of his ability to make money on this flashlight,’’ Kelly said.
Despite being wounded in the midsection, Tartakovskaya stumbled outside and ran into neighbors walking their dog.
The male dog walker, 68-year-old Joseph Shwereb, was dialing 911 when Iglanov approached with plans to put a bullet in the neighbor’s head.
‘‘She [Tartakovskaya] asked someone to make a phone call [to] 911. He, the shooter, went up to the individual who was making the call, pointed the gun at the head, pulled the trigger and the gun did not go off,’’ Kelly said.
‘‘So it was a very harrowing experience.’’
The drama began around 12:30 p.m. yesterday when Iglanov showed up at the victims’ home. Tartakovskaya had no idea Iglanov was packing heat when she let him inside.
Iglanov convinced the couple to meet with him in the kitchen to talk about his gripe.
Instead, Iglanov pulled a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol and opened fire on Tartakovskaya, law-enforcement sources said. Iglanov then immediately turned his gun on Levin, killing him.
After failing to kill the dog walker, Iglanov ran back inside to hide, cops said.
The first arriving officers found the armed lunatic cowering in a closet inside a basement exercise room, with his gun held to his head, according to police.
He pulled the trigger several times, but the pistol again jammed. The officers retreated and called for heavily armed Emergency Service Unit cops.
After hearing a single gunshot, ESU cops went into the basement and found Iglanov, who brandished his weapon at the officers before being shot seven times, law-enforcement sources said.
Additional reporting by Joe Moliica, Andy Campbell and David K. Li