Daily News from New York, New York • 23

pMuos Mm is pen By JERRY SCHMETTEREH and RICHARD ROSEN Disputing the account of his passenger, a cabdriv-er said yesterday that a rookie transit cop shot a 23-year-old man on Central Park West only after the man punched the cop and tried to strike him with his own nightstick. The statements cf the driver, Irwin Fuhr, contradicted a version of the shooting given by Tom Zito, a reporter for The Washington Post Zito was a passenger in Fuhr's cab when both men witnessed the shooting Sunday night at Central Park West and o) o)i 1 96th st Fuhr was interviewed yesterday by the Manhattan district attorney's office, which is investigating the hooting of Gilberto Polanco by Transit Police Officer Charles Varrone. "The officer had no choice but to shoot," Fuhr told the Dally News. He reportedly made similar statements to transit police and the district attorney office. POLICE SAID THAT 12 of 13 witnesses corrobo rated Fuhr's version of the incident Zito, the 13th, said he would meet today with Assistant District Attorney Michael Ferguson.

The reporter said that Fuhr's account of the incident to -The News and the district attorney differed from what Fuhr told Zito. "It's a little bit different from what he told me," Zito said last night. Zito's version of the shooting appeared in yester fflB EtH nail Starting October 1, Braniff introduces three daily nonstops to Houston, departing at: 8:00 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 4:15 p.m. All are Premier First ClassCoach flights. For reservations, call your travel agent, corporate travel office or Braniff in New York City at 687-8200; in Newark at 621-6411.

All other cities call toll-free (800) 527-4000. day's Washington Post He wrote that he saw Polanco punch the cop, who then pulled out his nightstick and handcuffs. The cop beat Polanco to the ground and then either dropped the nightstick or it was hit out of his hands, Zito wrote. AS POLANCO WAS getting up "it looked to me like he was starting to back off and raise his hands" when he was shot in the left shoulder and chest, Zito wrote. But Fuhr said yesterday that Polanco pounced on the nightstick after it fell to the ground and began "swinging the stick at him (Varrone)." The cop then fired, Fuhr said.

Police said Varrone was escorting Polanco from the IND subway station at 96th St and Central Park West when Polanco grabbed the cop's nightstick and 1 ib(bS SOX IDJOBJUTS KM JSD) Right now bring this coupon into any participating shop and get your choice of six delicious Dunkin' Donuts for only $1.00. beat Varrone on the head. Polanco, described by police as a person with no known address, was in stable condition yesterday in St Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital. .1 Varrone was treated at the hospital for shoulder bruises. He had also suffered a blow to the head, a hospital spokesman said.

The transit police Superior Officers Council said yesterday the original story in The News on the shooting, which included Zito's account without naming him, was misleading because it failed to mention that other witnesses supported the police version. Chef 's salad days at Gracie Mansion By ALFRED MIELE and DON SINGLETON Under a cover of secrecy as impenetrable as a 'failed souffle, Mayor Koch's office installed a new chef in Gracie Mansion this week, the fifth cook to hold the job since the garlic-happy mayor took office nearly four years ago. But the chef, 26-year-old dessert expert, may have to spend his first two weeks on the job sitting on his hands: Koch swore yesterday that he is going on a strict diet "He may know how to make cottage cheese 14 different ways," the mayor said, "but if he doesn't, I'm just going to eat it right out of the carton." The new chef, who moved into the mansion Monday, is Mitchel London, who grew up in Philadelphia and Israel and who is a 1977 graduate of the culinary arts program of the Rhode Island School of London, who will earn $300 a week plus room and board at Gracie Mansion, said heheard about the job opening last month when he read newspaper accounts of the hasty departure of chef Cindy Volper. She left because of cramped working conditions in the mansion's kitchen and the city's failure. (COUPON) HJCKWBA SIX DONUTS FOR G00 Available at atl participating shops.

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