BROOKLYN DAYCARE WAS A STASH HOUSE!

Upstaris tots. Downstairs, pot.

Armed bandits targeted a Brooklyn day care center where the owners ran a drug den in the basement, with a 10-pound marijuana stash and more than $100,000 in cash, police said Saturday.

Day care owner Donna Rogers, 37, andher husband, Sherwin, 36, were arrested for felony marijuana possession one day after kids at their East Flatbush business slept through a wild gun fight between cops and robbers.

"Obviously, they were doing more than just taking care of children," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. "It appears they were also dealing drugs at this location."

Sherwin Rogers surrendered to the 67th Precinct after cops - tipped by a seriously wounded suspect - returned to the day care Saturday and found the drugs and money hidden in a closet, Kelly said.

The couple lived in the basement, where neighborhood crooks knew they stashed large amounts of pot. And Friday's robbery was timely - it was pay day and pot was being delivered.

Next-door neighbor Grant Frierson, 70, wasn't surprised by the arrest - Rogers and her husband had recently purchased two new cars. But he was disgusted by the daycare ruse.

"Keeping all that cash and drugs under the same roof as those kids is just despicable," Frierson said. "Looks like those kids were a coverup."

About a dozen children, ages 1 to 10, were napping inside the Special Moments Day Care Center on Friday when the robbers - posing as parents - entered the facility, a police source said.

A pair of plainclothes officers from the 67th Precinctreached the robbery in progress to find a roomful of kids and oneadult: Gavin Nugent, with a 9-mm. Glock in his hand.

Nugent, 34,was shot after pointing the loaded gun at police. The bleeding suspect ran from the day care to the basement, but was too big to shimmy through a window to freedom, a police source said.

Nugent finally dropped his weapon after police shot him a second time. He was in stable condition at Kings County Hospital Saturday with gunshot wounds to the chest and wrist, Kelly said.

The initial confrontation was captured on videotape. Although police fired four times, the video showed the children sleeping innocently through the gunfire.

Nugent and career criminal Dwayne Jackson, 35, were arrested at the scene and charged with burglary, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon.

Their alleged lookout man, 37-year-old Carl Grierson, was also busted Friday.Police initially believed the armed robbers intended to steal the daycare's payroll until Nugent squealed on the drug operation.







FIRST STORY:
A gunman burst into a Brooklyn day care center and tried to rob the place before cops blasted him in a daylight shooting that terrified at least a dozen children.

The suspect was in stable condition at Kings County Hospital and none of the children was hurt in the Friday gunplay.

Cops raced to the Special Moments Day Care in East Flatbush after someone called 911 from inside about 12:30 p.m.

Police found the would-be robber, ordered him to drop the weapon and opened fire when he ignored their commands.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the suspect was shot inside the E. 52nd St. building or outside.

And police haven't said how many cops fired.

The children were taken to the 67th Precinct stationhouse, where paramedics examined them.

Grief counselors were also dispatched to the police station where anxious parents waited to see their kids.

"What kind of low life would do that?" asked Walter Morent, who was waiting for police to release his 2-year-old daughter, Adria.

A day care center should be the "last place that someone would rob. You can't trust anyone," said parent Samantha Morris.

She and her husband, Damion, had two children at the daycare center. She hoped her youngest was asleep when the shots rang out "and didn't see anything."

The center was a licensed group family day care facility with no outstanding violations.