Feris Jones, Salon Sharpshooter, Promoted To Detective

Cox's revolver. (Via WSJ)

Feris Jones, the NYPD officer who stopped a salon robber while she was off-duty and getting her hair done on Saturday, is being promoted to detective today. Jones, who in her 20 years in the NYPD had never fired her weapon, confronted 19-year-old Winston Cox as he attempted to rob the Bed-Stuy salon. She identified herself as an officer before he began shooting at her; she returned fire, shooting his revolver out of his hands. She also shot the front door, which locked it. And after that, we assume Jones twirled the revolver around her finger, blew on the barrel, and reminded Cox that the salon ain't big enough for the two of them.

A witness says Cox yelled, "This ain't no joke. This is a robbery. I will kill you," when he entered the salon, and ordered the four women inside to hide in the bathroom. After the confrontation, Cox fled on his hands and knees through the front glass, and police found him in a single-room-occupancy hotel on Pacific Street with his injured hand wrapped in paper towels. Cox was already on parole for selling crack in Vermont, and was charged with attempted murder and robbery. A friend of his said yesterday, “He was struggling. He has a baby on the way."

His own mother didn't share the same sympathies. Instead of defending her son's actions, Cheryl Cox praised Jones for her bravery. "What a great police officer—she did what she was trained to do. I would have done the same thing." She probably means it—she has filed eight domestic-violence complaints against her son.

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By Jaya Saxena in News on October 26, 2010 10:26 AM

Comments [rss]

BigUps

This lady is my hero. Good for her.

CRLife

Why would they promote her to detective for this? She actually deserves to be promoted to trainer at the shooting range at the Police Academy. Nonetheless, congrats Ms Jones.

jaycjay

"Why would they promote her to detective for this"

Well, no doubt this means she is now a Detective-specialist. Really just a change in pay grade and a pretty gold shield, but still doing exactly the same job. She won't start investigating crimes, which is done by Detective-inspectors.

In NYPD, unlike many other departments (and most TV depictions) detectives don't outrank police officers; "detective" isn't a supervisory position and at the initial Third Grade is an equivalent rank to Police Officer, though at a slightly higher rate of pay.

kc2slg

I wonder if the same person who wants to know where the extra shots went, would be screaming bloody murder if the officer had shot the guy in the chest--would we be hearing, "Why didn't she aim for the hand?"

I still think most critics of police marksmanship have never fired a handgun.

Petey

I questioned where the extra shots went, to question her "expert marksmanship" which ray kelly believes she had, and I would have been just as happy if the robber took 5 to the chest.

sleeplessknight

look, i question her accuracy also, but let a hero be a her. the nypd needs all the good publicity it can get its hands on

Petey

She did do an outstanding job, off duty, no vest, no backup, and she fired her gun, and hit her target, but the media and ray kelly wants to run with this like she intentionally shot the gun out of his hand, and intentionally shot the door to lock it.

ProcedureTurn

Kudos to the Officer Jones. Excellent Job. Congrats on the promotion!

Cannibal

She rules.

sj

She wasn't a sharpshooter and she wasn't shooting to injure. If she was a sharpshooter, the guy would have had five holes in his chest.

The shooting of the gun out of his hands was more accidental than anythig else. Research into police shootings has shown that participants in shootouts often get hit in the hands. The reason for that is not good aim but rather the fact that when someone points a gun at you, you tend to look at the gun. As a result, sometimes you wind up shooting your adversary in the hands because that's where the gun is. This is why any police firearms course trains officers in one-handed shooting and reloading techniques, strong hand and weak hand.

The shooting of the door lock can not have been intentional. She just missed the badguy and one of her rounds happened to hit the lock. It wasn't an intentional shot to keep the perp from escaping.

I don't mean to diminish the officer's accomplishments at all. She did an outstanding job, possibly saving lives, foiling a robbery in progress, and getting the subject captured. She is a hero and should be commended.

Everyone loves a good hero cop story but the PD is doing a disservice to themselves by implying that she made these shots intentionally. Because of course the next time there's a shooting, we get to hear "why didn't they shoot the gun out of his hands?"

sleeplessknight

wow....bravo, This is the best comment made out of all of these. You could not have put it better.

jaycjay

"he reason for that is not good aim but rather the fact that when someone points a gun at you, you tend to look at the gun. As a result, sometimes you wind up shooting your adversary in the hands because that's where the gun is."

It also often is where center-mass is, so is right about where the cop is trained to aim. Not specifically at the hands, but at what's behind them.

Guest

thanks for demonstrating one of those moments when no one really likes 'know-it-alls' all that much.

Mr. Know-It-All

Hey--I resemble that remark!

jaycjay

"we assume Jones twirled the revolver around her finger"

Sadly, unless you mean she picked up his revolver, that couldn't have happened because NYPD cops can't carry revolvers.

aprfctcrci

yes they can. when the nypd switched to semi automatics years ago, everyone who had a revolver was given the option to switch over to semi autos, or if they chose could stay with their revolver. being that she has 20 years on, she'd fit into this group that was grandfathered in with revolvers and are still authorized to carry them.

jaycjay

Ah, you're right. I didn't notice that she had 20 years. The change was made, I believe, in 1987. Anyone hired before then still has the option, though some models can only be used if the officer already owned the gun before that date.