New york Post May 1st ,2003

05/01/2003/NYPOST
WITNESS TALKS IN PAL SLAY
By LARRY CELONA, MURRAY WEISS and ANGELINA CAPPIELO
A 24-year-old Manhattan man who says he watched helplessly as his friend was shot to death on the Lower East Side in January suddenly began cooperating with cops yesterday after the victim's family denounced him for failing to help investigators.
Forrest Bloede showed up at the Pitt Street station house to aid the investigation into the death of Burke O'Brien, authorities said.
O'Brien, 25, was fatally shot in front of his Orchard Street walkup on Jan. 12 when he and Bloede, a former Colorado State University fraternity brother, were returning from a night out.
Cops initially arrested Bloede and charged him with murder, but released him 12 hours later. They cited a lack of sufficient evidence and a credible motive.
The case lay dormant for three months as O'Brien's family complained of the lack of progress - and Bloede's refusal to cooperate with detectives.
O'Brien's father, Mark O'Brien, planned to meet with prosecutors this week and raise the reward for information leading to an arrest to $25,000.
Yesterday, the elder O'Brien said Bloede's refusal to help catch the killer was "disgraceful."
"I'm angry," he told The Post. "We've been waiting for him to speak."
The victim's younger sister, Mariah, said, "He's not giving information pertinent to the case and he's the only one who knows the story."
But the probe took a sudden turn at 1 p.m. yesterday when Bloede showed up with his lawyer, Glenn Wolther, and looked at photos for about three hours.
Bloede didn't recognize the killer, but apparently saw something in photos of suspects in similar crimes that may be helpful, the lawyer said.
He said his client was "forced to be cautious" because while the detectives said privately they knew O'Brien was killed by two robbers, they wouldn't publicly rule Bloede out as a suspect.

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