A victor has officially been declared in the Bridgehampton fire commissioner election, with John O'Brien of Sagaponack winning a revote held on Tuesday night.

In a 32-vote spread, Mr. O'Brien received 138 votes, while Philip Cammann of Bridgehampton got 106. Six of the 250 votes cast were not counted toward the tally Tuesday night because those voters were not on the voter rolls, according to Barbara Roesel, the district secretary. Their ballots were put in sealed envelopes to be dealt with at a later time, though the six votes will not be enough to sway the results. 

This was the second election held for the position. It was initially held on Dec. 9, when a single vote separated Mr. O'Brien and Mr. Cammann in Mr. O'Brien's favor.

A close examination of the voter rolls the next day showed that two people living outside the fire district may have cast votes, which led to the vote being completely overturned.

"I want to thank everyone that came out to vote. I look forward to the job," Mr. O’Brien said when reached by phone after the vote. He is a 40-year member and former fire chief of the Bridgehampton Fire Department.

Mr. Cammann, who was at the firehouse waiting for the votes to be counted, said he was disappointed. "Obviously, those six votes won't make a difference," he said. He has run twice before both times in closely contested races. "Good luck to John and the rest of the board of commissioners," he said.

Mr. O'Brien's term is for five years.

The son of a New York hedge fund leader with a house in the Georgica Association was charged with murder Monday in the shooting death of his father at the elder man's apartment in Manhattan Sunday afternoon.

The police said Thomas Gilbert, 70, was killed by a single shot to the head in a bedroom in his apartment on Beekman Place. According to the New York Police Department, a 911 call was received at 3:31 p.m. on Sunday. Emergency medical personnel pronounced Mr. Gilbert dead at the apartment.

His son, Thomas Gilbert Jr., 30, of New York and Wainscott faces life imprisonment without the possibility of parole if convicted as charged.

Detectives of the 17th Precinct immediately sought out the son in connection with the death. According to Officer George Tsourovakas of the N.Y.P.D.'s public information bureau, when officers arrived at the younger Mr. Gilbert's Chelsea apartment late Sunday night, he quickly surrendered.

He was taken into custody by police as a person of interest, and was held at the 17th Precinct, which covers the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and questioned by detectives. The official arrest was made early Monday afternoon, Officer Tsourovakas said.

Mr. Gilbert was charged with three felonies, murder in the second degree and two charges of possession of a loaded weapon. He has had several mostly minor brushes with the law the past few months, in both Southampton and East Hampton Towns. He also has an outstanding criminal contempt charge in Southampton.

When he was arrested in East Hampton recently on unlicensed driving charges, the younger Mr. Gilbert gave police his father's Georgica Association Road address as his home address.

East Hampton Town police were called to the Association Road residence last March after the elder Mr. Gilbert arrived from the city to discover that someone had been staying in the house. Nothing was reported stolen, and no arrests were made.

Thomas Gilbert Sr. is the founder of Wainscott Capital Partners, which he described on his Linkedin page as "a long-short hedge fund that I have formed based on a 25-year track record of investing in public equities as well private equity transactions." The fund's value varies widely, depending on the source, from a high value of $200 million to a low of $5 million. He was in the news locally in 2012 when he fought a losing legal battle over the positioning of a barn on a neighboring property in Wainscott owned by William Babinski.

His wife, Shelly Gilbert, survives him.

Update, noon: According to the New York City Police Department, a 911 call was received at 3:31 p.m. on Sunday. The police said Thomas Gilbert, 70, was shot in a bedroom in his apartment. An EMS team pronounced Mr. Gilbert dead, at the apartment. Detectives of the 17th Precinct are questioning his son, Thomas Gilbert Jr., 30, but the investigation is ongoing, they said.

Originally, 9:45 a.m.: A New York hedge fund founder with a house in East Hampton's Georgica Association was shot dead in his apartment at 20 Beekman Place in Manhattan Sunday afternoon.

Thomas Gilbert, 70, was reportedly killed by a single shot to the head. Police are questioning his son, Thomas Gilbert Jr., 30, in connection with the death, but had not pressed charges as of Monday morning, according to multiple published reports.

East Hampton Town police were called to Mr. Gilbert's Association Road residence last March, after Mr. Gilbert arrived from the city, discovering that someone had been staying in the house. Nothing was reported stolen, and no arrests were made.

The elder Mr. Gilbert is the founder of Wainscott Capital Partners, which he described on his Linkedin page as "a long-short hedge fund that I have formed based on a 25 year track record of investing in public equities as well private equity transactions." The fund has an estimated value of $200 million.

The turnout for the Montauk Fire Department's fire commissioner election on Tuesday was the largest in 10 years, with Dick Monahan winning the election with 215 votes and the incumbent, Edward Sullivan, receiving 147. Mike Mirras, running unopposed to fill the remaining year of Vinnie Carillo's five-year term received 346 votes.

The candidates for the open full terms had clearly different platforms. Mr. Monahan is the department's only volunteer certified as an advanced life support provider. He was secretary of the department for the last 12 years, but has resigned the post to avoid any appearance of conflict, he said yesterday. "The winner last night was the community," he said in a phone interview.

In his platform, Mr. Sullivan spoke of his mechanical ability and the money he had saved the district by maintaining the department's emergency vehicles for the last 10 years.

Mr. Monahan had written several letters to The East Hampton Star and placed an ad in the paper last week, which called for more transparency from the commissioners. He also supported around-the-clock, full-time paid paramedics, which had become a bigger community issue with the recent news that Dr. Anthony Knott was leaving his Montauk practice.

It was a long night for the ballot counters, election inspectors, and Terri Czeczotka, the district secretary and chairwoman of the board of elections. She said the votes were tallied by two inspectors, Ann Clemenz and Therese Jarmain, who compared their numbers and recounted. By 11 p.m. the vote was official.

The issue of paid medical support came to the fore when the commissioners cut the coverage back to 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. after Columbus Day weekend. It had been full time during the summer. At a commissioners meeting two weeks ago, however, some 80 to 90 residents showed up to ask them to reconsider full-time coverage. At that meeting, Joe Dryer, the chairman of the board of commissioners, said they would look to tweak the budget to expand the program.

At a meeting held right before Tuesday's vote, they did so. "In a unanimous decision the board of fire commissioners moved to extend the existing paramedic program to provide full time 24/7 year-round coverage," he said in a statement.

Jay Levine, a health care consultant and member of the board of directors of Southampton Hospital, had also spoken out on the issue. In a statement yesterday, he said Mr. Monahan's win indicates strong grass-roots support for full-time coverage. "Many senior citizens braved a nor'easter to trek to the firehouse to elect a man who brought this issue to light," he said.

 

Firefighters quickly extinguished a basement fire in a Barnes Landing house that was reported early Sunday morning.

Amagansett Fire Department Chief Dwayne Denton said the outcome could have been much worse, because the sole occupant of the house did not know the name of the street it was on when he woke up to smoke and popping sounds. He got out of the house and called 911 at about 3:50 a.m., Chief Denton said.

East Hampton Town police and the fire chiefs were able to find the caller, and with the help of dispatchers, they directed firefighters to the house, which was on the corner of Harbor Hill Lane and Windward Way.

"This is why it's important for everyone one to know where they are," the chief said.

Once inside, firefighters encountered very heavy smoke conditions in the basement. "Of all the fires I've been to, this one was probably the worst. You couldn't see one foot in front of you," Chief Denton said.

A Springs Fire Department tanker was called in. About 50 firefighters in all responded. The Montauk Fire Department, which had fought a house fire on Saturday, stood by at Amagansett's headquarters.

After firefighters got into the basement and utility room, where the fire was mainly contained, they were able to extinguish it within 15 minutes. They prevented the flames from spreading to the rest of the house, which Chief Denton said only had slight smoke damage.

The volunteers did a “fantastic job stopping the fire from spreading,” he said.

Fire department personnel remained at the house until about 5:45 a.m. The East Hampton Town fire Marshal's office is investigating the cause of the fire.

 

A fire that started in the basement of a house on Old West Lake Drive in Montauk on Saturday morning did extensive damage to the two-story building, then reignited three hours later, requiring a second visit from the Montauk Fire Department.

In addition to two engines, a ladder truck and a pumper from the Montauk Fire Department were on the scene both times. Rapid intervention teams from Amagansett and East Hampton were called in for the first go round in morning, with the Amagansett unit being deployed to help fight the fire.

The first call about the fire came into the East Hampton Town police substation in Montauk from a resident on Lake Montauk, reporting a cloud of smoke.

Montauk Fire Department Chief Joseph Lenahan and East Hampton Town Police Officer Vincent Rantinella were the first on the scene. Officer Rantinella happened to have with him an implement newly aquired for the department, a Halligan entry tool, and volunteered to open the front door, Chief Lenaham said. The door was open in seconds. “I was impressed,” the chief said.

“Smoke conditions were intense inside,” Chief Lenahan said. The fire, which had started in the basement, had breached the first floor by the time the building was entered, he said.

The first fire truck arrived four minutes after the chief's arrival. “We set up two attack lines to the front door. The initial attack was on the first floor,” Chief Lenahan said. When the second engine arrived, the firefighters ran two lines to the basement. Vincent Franzone, an assistant chief was in charge of the interior battle, with Dutch Riege, an assistant chief, in charge of securing the perimeter of the burning house.

It took about 25 minutes to extinguish the initial blaze and much longer to get the smoke out of the house.

“We had to vent the roof in three different spots,” Chief Lenahan said.

By noon, the department was packing up. Tom Baker, an East Hampton Town fire marshal, inspected the premises. He said that the fire started in the basement, but said he would not make a final determination about the cause until Monday or Tuesday.

A neighbor, Helen Gil, said she had received a call from the property’s owner asking if she could go inside the house, and turn the heat up, slightly, which she did on Saturday morning. The fire was discovered shortly thereafter.

The second fire call came around 2:20 p.m. Plumbers who had been called to the site to pump out water from the house began to notice smoke.

The house, about 30 years old, was built at a time when the fire code for construction was less restrictive. “The way the house was constructed, they had a drop ceiling,” Chief Lenahan said. Drop ceilings and wall panels were ripped out, and the renewed blaze was extinguished promptly. 

East Hampton Town tax records list the property owner as the Lionel R. Saporta Trust.

Tom Twomey, a lawyer, community leader, and chairman of the East Hampton Library, died on Sunday of an apparent heart attack. He was 68.

Mr. Twomey was the founding partner in 1973 of a firm that grew into the Twomey, Latham, Shea, Kelley, Dubin, and Quartararo firm, which is based in Riverhead. He lived on Two Holes of Water Road in East Hampton's Northwest Woods with his wife, Judith Hope.

Early in his career he was an assistant town attorney for Southampton Town and at various times was special counsel for Southold, Riverhead, Shelter Island, East Hampton, Brookhaven, Smithtown, and Babylon Towns on various matters. He was appointed by Gov. Hugh Carey to the New York State Energy Council in 1978 and the New York State Freshwater Wetlands Appeals Board in 1979, and to the Long Island Power Authority in 1989.

Mr. Twomey was named by Gov. Mario Cuomo to lead the East End Economic and Environmental Institute, which led to the creation of the New York State Farmland Preservation Program, the acquisition of parkland, and increased support for the tourist and wine industries and recreational needs of the East End.

He was a recreational pilot, keeping an aircraft at East Hampton Airport, and was active both professionally and personally in advocating on behalf of airport interests. Recently, he was a member of an East Hampton Town committee led by Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez that had been asked to study the future options for the airport.

Among Mr. Twomey's more recent accomplishments was serving as a co-chairman of the East Hampton Town 350th Anniversary Committee, for which he produced a multivolume edition of books on local history. An able fund-raiser, he led a lengthy, sometimes hard-fought effort to expand the East Hampton Library, lining up private donations for a $6.5 million addition for a new children's room and meeting space. In a statement released on Monday Dennis Fabiszak, the library's director said Mr. Twomey was "an extraordinary leader who was dedicated to making this one of the greatest small libraries in America."

He was also a member of the board at the Guild Hall cultural center in East Hampton.

Visiting hours for Mr. Twomey will be Friday from 2 to 4  and 7 to 9 p.m. at Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton.

His funeral will be Saturday at 1 p.m. at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in East Hampton. A reception will follow at East Hampton Point restaurant on Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton.

Donations in his memory have been suggested to the East Hampton Library, 159 Main Street, East Hampton 11937.

East Hampton High School's boys soccer team took home the Suffolk County Class A championship at Dowling Sports Complex in Shirley on Friday evening, advancing to the Long Island championship. 

The Bonackers overcame Comsewogue 1-0, thanks to Camillo Godoy scoring in the 55th minute after an assist from Max Lerner.

The Long Island championship game will be played at the Dowling Sports Complex on Sunday at noon. East Hampton will face South Side. The state Final Four is to be contested on fields at Middletown High School over the Nov. 15-16 weekend.

With reporting by Craig Macnaughton

Update, 11 a.m.: After police searched East Hampton School following the discovery of a threat on a bathroom mirror, students were allowed to return to classes Wednesday morning at about 10:45. 

"Police and staff at the school have deemed it to be safe," said Town Police Capt. Chris Anderson. He declined to provide the details of the threatening message, but called it "a very non-specific threat." The building was immediately evacuated, and police and school personnel did a "full sweep" of the school.  

School officials posted an announcement on the district's website: "After a comprehensive search, the high school has now been deemed safe for students to return to their classrooms." 

"At this point, we do not know the length of time that particularly threat has been present," Captain Anderson said. "The building is clear and the investigation is continuing." 

No arrests were made as of 11 a.m. 

Update, 10:45 a.m.: Students are reportedly re-entering East Hampton High School and class is expected to resume.

Some parents lined up on Long Lane while students sat in bleachers on the football field after the building was evacuated following the discovery of a written threat on a bathroom mirror. 

Police were unavailable for comment. 

Original, 9:20 a.m.: East Hampton High School students are being evacuated Wednesday morning after a written threat was discovered on a bathroom mirror, Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo said.

At 9:02 a.m., all parents in the school district received an automated phone call informing them that the high school on Long Lane was being evacuated "due to a message scrawled on a bathroom mirror." School officials said the message did not appear to be credible, but that the district we will always act with an "abundance of caution" in these situations.

The police chief declined to say what the threat was exactly. He said the message was found just before 9 a.m.

Chief Sarlo said patrol officers are working with the school resource officer and school personnel to conduct "a sweep of the building for anything suspicious."  He called the evacuation "a precautionary measure." 

"High school students have been evacuated as a precautionary action due to a message on a bathroom mirror," said Richard Burns, the district's superintendent. "Town police are on the scene. A thorough search of the building is underway. The district will always err on the side of safety."

As of 9:15 a.m., the bomb squad and other specialized police units were not being called in, but that could change depending on the findings, the chief said. "We'll walk through. Our officers are trained and they know what to look for."

Students were being lined up on the field. The chief said school officials will have to decide whether to bus students to another building or send them home. 

Check back for more information as it becomes available.

With Reporting by Amanda Fairbanks

Valon Shoshi, who was arrested Friday following a frantic police manhunt after he allegedly fired a shotgun in his family's house in Springs then fled in a car, was released on $25,000 bail after an appearance in East Hampton Town Justice Court on Saturday. Justice Lisa R. Rana also ordered him to undergo immediate psychological treatment.

Mr. Shoshi was charged with felony reckless endangerment and three misdemeanors: assault, illegal discharge of a weapon, and possession of a loaded gun in a motor vehicle.

Mr. Shoshi, 28, allegedly fired a shotgun three times on Friday morning in his bedroom at 85 Gardiner Avenue, Springs, slightly injuring his mother, before fleeing in a Cadillac sedan that he had purchased in Florida just a few days before, according to his Facebook page.

Atifet Shoshi, Mr. Shoshi's mother, was apparently hit with material dislodged by the shotgun blasts, which were directed at a television and a bedroom wall. She was taken in an ambulance to Southampton hospital, where she was treated and released.

On Saturday morning, Mr. Shoshi's mother along with other family members and many friends and supporters filled about half of the seats in the town courtroom.

During Friday's search police initially surrounded a house off Georgica Road in East Hampton Village shortly before noon, believing Mr. Shoshi might have barricaded himself inside. When two police teams entered the house, Mr. Shoshi was not there. Police from several departments who had joined in the manhunt were alerted to be on the lookout for Mr. Shoshi's black Cadillac.

Shortly after that, a police officer spotted the car headed north on Abraham's Path in East Hampton. A brief pursuit ended in front of One Stop Market on Springs-Fireplace Road, where armed officers surrounded the car.

On Saturday, Mr. Shoshi pleaded not guilty to the four charges through his lawyer, Edward Burke Jr.

During the arraignment, Mr. Burke told Justice Rana about Mr. Shoshi’s contributions to the community. “He was assistant chief of the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association. He has six years in the Springs Fire Department,” he said.

“This is not him,” Mr. Burke told Justice Rana. “I know the court has concerns with his family situation. He was married in 2012. His wife resides in Kosovo,” he said. According to his Facebook page, Mr. Shoshi recently returned from a brief trip to there. While living in Kosovo last fall, he had been shot and seriously injured. 

Mr. Shoshi and his family moved to East Hampton in 1999 to escape the war in Kosovo. He and his brothers are accomplished athletes. Mr. Shoshi was a boxer who fought and won at least one round of the Golden Gloves tournament. His nickname in the ring was Eagle Boy. 

In court on Saturday morning, Mr. Shoshi wore a black t-shirt from the 2008 Golden Gloves boxing tournament that said "Golden Gloves Eagle Boy."  His family sat in silence as Justice Rana began to speak. She said that the district attorney’s office had asked bail to be set at $100,000.

“I have a lot of concerns,” she said, talking directly to Mr. Shoshi. “Your attorney says you would never hurt somebody, but you did. I don’t know what’s going on. You were very engaged in the community. You have been a real asset to the community. You have a squeaky-clean history. But it only takes one set of circumstances to turn someone’s life in the wrong direction.” As she spoke, several of those seated in the courtroom began to cry.

“If you are released, where are you emotionally? No matter what is going on in your life, there is a green pasture on the other side. My courtroom is filled with people who care about you. It can’t be so bad.”

She paused. “Turn around. I want you to look at them. They are all there for you.” Mr. Shoshi looked at his family. “The next time you go down that rat hole, you may not come out,” Justice Rana said. While setting bail at $25,000, Justice Rana made a condition that he must immediately seek psychological treatment, ordering that Mr. Burke would have to provide proof to the court by Thursday or bail could be increased.

Justice Rana also issued an order of protection, which allows Mr. Shoshi to see to his family, but requires him not to do anything that would harm them in any way. She also ordered him to turn in to police all guns and any other weapons he may own.