Results tagged “nypdshooting”

A police officer is in stable condition after being shot by a stray bullet while responding to a domestic dispute call in Ridgewood early this morning. According to NY1, Officer Rodney Lewis was reporting to a call around 5 a.m. of a domestic dispute involving a gun inside a Queens apartment on Menahan Avenue. When cops arrived on the scene, they spotted a bald man who appeared to fit the description of one of the men involved in the altercation. Police noticed a gun in his waistband and apprehended him, only to have the weapon go off and strike the 40-year-old Lewis in the side of the chest. Lewis was rushed to Wyckoff Medical Center while police arrested 33-year-old Edwin Santana, who was wanted for parole violations and is believed to have obtained the gun illegally. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Bloomberg have already visited Lewis at the hospital where he is recovering and reportedly in good spirits. Bloomberg told reporters, "I joked with him that we had a budget crisis and we wanted him back on the job."

A man is in critical condition after being shot by an NYPD officer following a chase with cops early Saturday morning. Police approached 47-year-old Jesus Roldan in the Morrisania section of The Bronx around 3:45 a.m. Saturday when they noticed him "shuffling around with his waistband." Roldan quickly bolted and pulled out a gun as he was followed by the two officers along with an undercover trailing in an unmarked car. Officers said that they repeatedly told Roldan to drop the weapon, a claim backed up by a neighbor who spoke to investigators. Eventually Roldan changed course and faced officers, who again told him to put the gun down. When he didn't, one of the cops, a five-year-veteran, shot him three times, once in the torso and once in each arm. Police say Roldan has been arrested eight times since 1985 for robbery, weapons and drugs. A neighbor told the News, "It was loud and clear. I paid no attention to it because it's the Fourth of July."

Ten years ago, outside a Bronx apartment building, the NYPD Street Crimes Unit fired 41 times at unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo. The 22-year-old street peddler died from the 19 shots that hit him, and the shooting raised questions about race relations in the city, police brutality and then Mayor Giuliani's defense of the NYPD. People took to the streets to protest; the Reverend Al Sharpton told NY1, "For 1,200 people for over 13 days, just come by the hundreds and submit nonviolently to jail hadn't happened anywhere in this country since the '60s....It was unprecedented to see former mayors, members of Congress, Academy Award winners like Susan Sarandon going to jail with housewives and regular people every day." (Bruce Springsteen wrote a song, American Skin [41 Shots]—and he was called a dirtbag by a police union.) Though the Street Crimes Unit was disbanded, the four officers involved were acquitted of charges. You can read about more the incident at Court TV and at the NY Times.