Shootout at Pop's

Here's his story: The two robbers walked into Pop's Paradise minutes before closing late Tuesday night. They stepped into the backroom, where a handful of people drank and talked. The robbers wore cold-weather masks covering the lower half of their faces.

In the front room of Pop's, a regular known in the bar as an NYPD officer was set to order a drink. It was his birthday.

"He was just sitting down," said Curly Faulkner, 71, a bartender at Pop's who was at the bar, but off-duty. "That's when it all broke loose."