Results tagged “emergencyserviceunit”

After an emotionally disturbed man fell to his death after being Tasered by the police, the NYPD's entire Emergency Service Unit will "undergo retraining" on using the stun gun. The NYPD admitted the fatal incident seemed to violate department rules, since the police didn't try to break the fall of Inman Morales who was on a building ledge (ESU did call for an airbag, but it hadn't arrived yet). A new commanding officer--Deputy Chief James Molloy--is taking over ESU (a deputy inspector had been the acting head). Additionally, the NYPD may create a database so they'll know if they've responded to a previous incident with an emotional disturbed person at that address; each day, the police respond to almost 200 EDP calls.

After scaring residents of two boroughs when a woman discovered a pipe bomb on her Jeep Cherokee, police arrested Baudelio Rodriguez for making a pipe bomb and placing it on a car. What makes the story more strange is that it was Rodriguez's daughter who discovered the bomb - the Jeep belongs to his daughter and his wife! He was reportedly angry at his wife for leaving their Brooklyn home and staying with their daughter in Staten Island.

Do second graders need to go through metal detectors and be patted down? That's the question some parents are asking after a 7-year-old brought a .38 caliber pistol to his Queens school yesterday.

The manhunt for Ralph "Bucky" Phillips, who escaped from an Erie County jail and shot three state troopers, may get some help from the NYPD. The NY Sun reports that the NYPD has been in discussion with the New York State Police to send over Emergency Service Unit officers (ESU is what the NYPD calls its SWAT unit) to aid in the manhunt.

heard cries yesterday morning and thought it was a neighbor, so she called the police. But since it wasn't coming from any neighbors or anyone in 404 West 40th, the noise was coming from the walls where Serafin Sanchez, a homeless thief, who tried to escape police a couple hours earlier by jumping into the 1-foot square chimney, was stuck. A barechested Sanchez was pulled out of the chimney, covered in soot and carrying various jewelry from his earlier haul (he and another thief had been stealing from other buildings, and the police had been chasing them on rooftops, catching Sanchez's accomplice but missing him).

Holy moly high wire insanity! The two Roosevelt Island tram cars, which got stuck starting at around 5:20PM yesterday, were only totally evacuated by 4:30AM this morning! There were a total of 69 passengers in the two cars, including children, babies, an elderly lady with a walker, and a dog, and five trips were needed to clear the cars. The NYPD, FDNY and emergency workers used a "diesel-powered rescue gondola" as well as an industrial crane and bucket to pluck people out, and the passengers were uninjured, if a little shaken up. The Times has a description of how the rescue worked:

Passengers described putting on harnesses and swinging across a two-and-a-half-foot gap between the tram and the gondola, which had crawled up along the length of the 3,100-foot stretch of cable with self-generated diesel power.

Continue reading "Tram-atic, 12 Hour Roosevelt Island Commute!"

The Myers of Keswick cat has been stuck in a wall for almost two weeks, according to the NY Post (whose headlines says "Get Me-Out!"). The poor kitty, named Molly, was originally thought to be be stolen, but then people to started hearing meows (the meowing wall?). The fire department found a hole Molly probably used to disappear; however, yesterday, when the NYPD's Emergency Service Unit (ESU - that's totally a show idea) came in, the "sensor- detecting equipment and snake-head cameras" were used to no avail. Gah! It's 2006 - we put a man on the moon ages ago and they can't find a cat in the wall? Gothamist hopes that Molly will figure her way out - we imagine there's some food by the hole - or that she'll find some bugs and rodents to munch on. A friend's cat managed to wander into the wall and into a crawlspace, so the owner had to cut a hole in the wall to retrieve that rascaly Patches (the owner then patched up and repainted the wall, lest the landlord be the wiser!).