Daily News from New York, New York • 4

inn inir rim mi -J jVv HE? AH 7 I i I I ---I 1 'L i-4-' 1 KM -iSSfcfc "-h4 Cfiiiirma iTm AP parents "need our help and support" Miller said Robin Watkins, who works in the 49th Precinct squad in the Bronx, was so distraught that doctors placed her on medication. Detectives have not yet formally interviewed her about where she kept the snub-nosed revolver, Miller said. The shooting was ruled accidental, pending a procedural review by the Queens district attorney. Miller said. Robin Watkins was home on vacation and had been sleeping with the boy in the master bedroom.

She rose and walked a few feet to the bathroom when the boy apparently-awoke and found the revolver, police said. What was supposed to be a day of celebration yesterday at the East Elmhurst home became a time of heart-breaking anguish. Yellow and blue birthday balloons for Robin Watkins still hung from the walls in the living room where detectives and neighbors arrived to comfort the couple. Stunned friends and neighbors gathered outside the Watkins' brick home and spoke about the little boy who was fighting for his life. "He's a nice boy.

He plays with my kids," said neighbor Lisa Baron, 24. "I don't let my children play with guns no gun toys, nothing at all." said Baron. Edward Watkins joined the NYPD in 1984. his wife a year later. He became a detective in 1990, she in 1991.

The couple have an 8-year-old daughter. By CHRIS OUVER and alice Mcquillan Datly News Start Writers Moments after a city detective: -Jell he'r-T; sleeping son alone in their bod to use the bathroom, the boy grabbed her off-duty revolver and shot himself in the head. Eddie Watkins. 4. fired once into his forehead about 1:30 a.m.

with his mother. Detective Robin Watkins, just a lew feet away, police said. The boy's father. Edward Watkins, who is also a detective, was working at Midtown South at the time. Police hadn't determined by-late yesterday exactly where the gun was located when the boy grabbed it.

The mother, who turned 31 yesterday, was too distraught to talk to investigators, officials said. City Hospital Center at Elm-hurst listed the child as critical. But friends of the devastated couple sounded hopeful. "Little Eddie has stabilized and we're happy and praying he'll get better," said Detective Brian Costello, a colleague of Edward Watkins. Costello said the parents "are both suffering very much." The tragedy prompted department officials to consider formalizing guidelines for securing off-duty guns.

Currently, the police patrol guide broadly cautions cops to safeguard their weapons. "Overall, we'll examine whether or not we should look at some of the written rules," said spokesman John Miller. "This is a terrible family tragedy." he aJded, saying the (SainrSeEr my israw NARROW ESCAPE: Natalie Kaufman of Columbia, S.C.,- canceled because she wasn't feeling well. her reservation on USAir flight 1016 H. 27 LaG deaths in '92 incident The crash of USAir Flight 1016 in Charlotte.

N.C., Saturday was the airline's first major plane crash in more than two years. In March 1992. USAir Flight 405 crashed during take-off at LaGuardia Airport, killing 27 passengers. The Cleveland-bound Fokker F-28 skidded off LaGuardia's runway 13 in gusting snow into Flushing Bay and exploded. It was a DC-9.

originating in Columbia. S.C., that crashed in Charlotte during thunderstorms, killing 37 of 57 people aboard. It was the second major air disaster involving a DC-9 in Charlotte. In 1974, an Eastern Airlines DC-9 crashed during a landing attempt, killing 71 of 82 people aboard. I Robert Gearty Manhattan commuters instead of combat Marines could soon be taking off and landing on the deck of a Navy helicopter carrier.

Officials are hoping to moor the soon-to-be retired Guadalcanal on the Hudson River near the Intrepid and use it as a commercial heliport. The Guadalcanal will soon be decommissioned and if all goes as planned, it could be in use as a heliport by 1996. "In peaceful retirement, the Guadalcanal can continue to serve as a new, commercial heliport for midtown Manhattan while still reminding us of her legacy and the sacrifices that brought us to a time of lessened threat and conflict," Sen. Daniel Moynihan said in a statement. Sens.

Moynihan and Al-fonse D'Amato announced the transfer of the ship to the Intrepid Foundation Museum Saturday after the Senate approved it in an amendment the senators offered to the pending Defense Department authorization bill. The Guadalcanal was launched in 1961 as an assault carrier that deployed helicopters with troops and supplies. The ship served in the Caribbean, recovered astronauts on Gemini and Apollo missions and served in the Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf and off Somalia. Donald Francis, deputy director of the Intrepid muse-um. said the foundation would like to moor the ship behind the Intrepid, parallel to 12th and use it as a working heliport.

"It will be the largest commercial heliport in the city," Francis said. "The city has a real need for more helicopter-landing capability." -0k i 3 -3 CD FIREFIGHTERS examine piece house about a half mile from the of wreckage that slammed into a airport..