Costabile Farace - Murder of DEA Agent Hatcher

Murder of DEA Agent Hatcher

After being released on parole on June 3, 1988, Farace soon got into trouble again. He began selling small amounts of cocaine and marijuana. In late February 1989, Farace set up a cocaine deal with Everett Hatcher, an undercover federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent. At approximately 10:00 p.m. on the evening of February 28, 1989, Farace was to meet Hatcher at a remote overpass on the West Shore Expressway in the Rossville section of Staten Island to complete the deal. Hatcher had met Farace to discuss purchasing cocaine from him on several occasions. During the course of the drug transaction, Hatcher got separated from the surveillance team. When the team finally found Hatcher, he had been shot through the head three times in his unmarked Buick Regal. The window was rolled down and the Regal's engine was on, but Hatcher's foot was on the brake.

Police theorized that Farace shot Hatcher from a van as it passed Hatcher's car. The van was found abandoned three days later on a street about two miles northeast of the murder scene. This location was less than half a mile from the Arthur Kill Correctional Facility, where Farace had spent the last two years of his manslaughter sentence. It is not known why Farace killed Hatcher; it may have been because Hatcher was African-American and Farace was a racist. Another theory is that Farace had become suspicious of Hatcher from rumors he had heard.