Newsday from New York, New York • 5

Police Link Missing Boys Say baby-stealing ring could be possibility By Chapin Wright Two toddlers snatched from the same Harlem playground three months apart may have been victims of a baby-stealing ring, police said yesterday, citing striking similarities in both cases. There is a possibility of someone stealing a baby for sale, Deputy Chief Ronald J. Fenrich said. Theres a possibility that someone looking to adopt a child whos not qualified may arrange to have a baby stolen. The two beys 19-month-old Shane Walker and 2-year-old Christopher Dansby were last seen at the same playground at the Martin Luther King Shane Walker Christopher Dansby Jr.

Towers at 114th Street and Lenox Avenue. Shane disappeared Thursday and Christopher vanished May 18. Fenrich noted the similarities of both cases: both boys live in the same building; they were taken from the same playground on the same day of the week Thursday; and they were both playing with the same children at the time of their disappearance. During a news conference at the 28th Precinct station house yesterday, Fenrich said police were looking at the possibility that whoever abducted the children are related to each other either related by some type of conspiracy to steal children or related to each other in selling the children. In both instances, the boys were playing with a 10-year-old girl and her 5-year-old brother, Fenrich said.

The older children said they briefly stopped playing with each boy, turning away for a few moments. When they returned the boys were gone, Fenrich said. Weve interviewed them on many occasions, he said. Theyre small children and we have no reason to believe theyre concealing anything. In most kidnaping cases, you usually hear from the abductor right away, Please see KIDS on Page 25 -V xj omeoneklooking mmmaxkammgeL Deputy Chief Ronald J.

Fenrich Watch On Family Defended By Rose Marie Arce Police decided against placing a 24-hour guard on Carlos Hernandez family even though the antidrug activist had pleaded for protection five times, saying he was threatened with an Uzi and received two written death threats. The family had been under the lowest form of police surveillance, hourly checks by a patrol car driving by their house on Starr Street in Brooklyn, when Maria Hernandez, 34, was shot through her bedroom window and killed at 4:38 a.m. Tuesday. Brooklyn North Patrol Chief Thomas Gallagher said police considered some of Hernandez complaints to be the result of a feud with neighbors. It was a management decision.

You assess the threat. You try to look into a crystal ball and 99 percent of the time youre right, Gallagher said. If we had a police officer there it might not have happened, but you make a management decision based on what you know at the time. But Carlos Hernandez said police should Bhare the blame for his wifes death. If they had given me police protection my wife would not be dead, he said.

Now, Hernandez has his own patrol of neighbors who watch his house 24 hours a day, despite a 24-hour police guardnow posted outside his door. His stepchildren and his son went into hiding yesterday, without Injured Cop Had Warning On Deal By Elaine Rivera Police supervisors knew beforehand that a young undercover officer who was critically wounded during a drug purchase last week might be robbed during the deal, police authorities confirmed yesterday. A confidential informant gave the warning to supervisors the day before undercover narcotics officer Jerry Ortiz was sent to the Bronx apartment at 1975 Bathgate where a drug deal went awry Thursday, police sources said. Ortiz, 24, who is in critical condition at St. Barnabas Hospital after being shot twice in the back, also was given cj the information that he might be robbed but decided to go ahead with the 5 deal anyway, according to police.

Hes the one who made the decision if there was any feeling against it, he had the option to abort, said Assistant Chief John J. Hill of the Narcot ics Divi- jn sion. Hill would not elaborate further jg regarding the information that police 8 received. Hill described Ortiz as an experienced undercover officer with at least 300 drug purchases behind him. On Thursday, doctors removed Ortizs spleen, half his liver and part of his Please see COP on Page 25 Newsday Daniel Sheehan Carlos Hernandez Please see GUARD on Page 25 i.