Results tagged “policeshooting”

A 17-year-old boy was reportedly shot in the back by NYPD officers patrolling the Gouverneur Morris Houses in the Bronx last night around 9:30. Police say they spotted Peter Colon carrying a .22-caliber gun in a stairwell of the housing project, and when a female officer reached for the gun, Colon fought back. The Daily News, which reports Colon's age as 19, says the teen hit the female cop in the face and pointed the gun at her. At that point, her partner then shot at Colon twice, hitting him once in the back.

Yesterday morning, a five-hour standoff began when a 20-year-old kidnapped his ex-girlfriend and held her hostage in a Brighton Beach, Brooklyn building. It ended when police stormed the apartment's kitchen: The Daily News reports, "One officer used a Taser on Samuel White, 20, and another officer fired his gun when White lunged at Emergency Service Unit officers with the kitchen blade as they entered his Brighton Beach apartment around 5p.m." (It's unclear if White was hit.) White apparently managed to recover enough to stab one detective with a 12-inch knife, prompting cops to yell, "Put it down! Put it down!" before three officers firing at him five times, killing him. The 19-year-old ex-girlfriend had an order of protection against White, after he allegedly kidnapped her and raped her in August; yesterday, she did manage to escape the building. The NY Times says she climbed "through a window just as the police arrived. She told the police she had been raped." White's friends and sister do not think he was armed, telling the papers, "All I can say is an unarmed person was killed. It wasn’t necessary, it wasn’t right," and "This kid had no weapons. He was a good kid."

The Rev. Al Sharpton will hold a vigil tonight outside police headquarters to support the families of men killed by police, including recent victims Omar Edwards and Shem Walker, as well as Sean Bell, who was killed outside his bachelor party at a Queens strip club in 2006. Sharpton's National Action Network is organizing the vigil. Walker, the most recent victim, was an army veteran who was killed by an undercover cop during a drug sting in Clinton Hill; NYPD sources say the cop had earphones in to keep in touch with his team and didn't hear Walker's demand that he get off his stoop. Cops say Walker kicked the officer in the head and grabbed for his gun in the ensuing scuffle; witnesses insist the cop never identified himself. And in May, Edwards, an officer himself, was killed while chasing a man who had broken into his car. Earlier this month a grand jury declined to indict the officer who fatally shot him.

Police are still trying to figure out where the shot came from and if it was intended for the police officer it struck in the chest in Bed-Stuy (not Bushwick) yesterday. The 34-year-old unnamed cop was stepping outside the 81st precinct when he heard a gun go off and came back into the station to tell fellow officers, "I think I've been shot." The bullet was easily absorbed by the officer's bulletproof vest and no one else nearby heard the shot go off, leading police to believe that this was a pellet gun or low-level firearm. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said, “Metal fragments, or fragments of the projectile, were taken out of the plate of the vest. This is something that did not penetrate the vest.” Police have been searching the area around the station house for any abandoned guns, but did not say that there were any suspects yet.

A police officer was shot early this morning in Brooklyn. The officer was shot in the chest around 3:30 a.m. in the parking lot of the 81st precinct stationhouse near the corners of Ralph Avenue and Quincy Street in Bushwick. The officer was taken to Kings County Hospital and released soon after since the bullet was absorbed by his bulletproof vest. Cops are saying that the weapon was either a pellet gun or a low-caliber firearm, as police are still investigating.

Yesterday, the Jersey City police released videos from the July 16 shooting incident that left one police officer dead as well as the two suspects under surveillance who apparently started the gunfire. Four other police officers were also wounded. Jersey City police chief Thomas Comey defended his department's decision, saying of suspect Hassan "Shakur" Hosendove, "As we were seeking to open up a line of communication, he was seeking to open up a line of fire."

Cops in the Bronx fatally shot a man who had opened fire on them in the wee hours of yesterday morning. 31-year-old Oswaldo Sevilla had just gone out for a soda according to his roommate when police began receiving reports from neighbors in Longview that he had been firing a gun while walking on Southern Boulevard around 2:30 a.m. Two officers approached Sevilla while a crowd was gathered and he began walking away from them, clearly brandishing a weapon. As cops told him to drop it, Sevilla fired at them. They ducked behind a van just as two more officers were arriving on the scene. Both teams of officers shot back at Sevilla; witnesses claimed to hear over 30 shots total. As the cops undergo a routine inquiry by an internal shooting review board, one police source told the News, "This is as clean as it gets." Sevilla was a construction worker in Mott Haven who emigrated from Mexico as a teenager. A friend of his told the Times, “Something must have happened to him. That doesn’t sound like the man I know.”

The mother of the undercover police officer who was shot by a fellow officer in East Harlem in May has expressed how displeased she is with the handling of the case. Natalia Harding, mother of the late Officer Omar Edwards, has rekindled discussion over the incident in which her son, a black officer in plainclothes, was fatally shot by Officer Andrew Dunton, a white cop chasing on foot. Harding said, "If this was Omar Edwards who shot -- whatever his name is — Dunton, Omar Edwards would be sitting in jail right now waiting to be tried for murder. I would like to see him go to jail. He is going to go out and do the same thing again."

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."

Last night, police shot and killed a robbery suspect who they had been following on a wild chase that also left bystanders and police officers injured. A pedestrian told police that people in a car had just robbed him—of $1,200 cash—at West 177th near the West Side Highway. Police then chased the silver Cadillac throughout Washington Heights. According to WCBS 2, "The Cadillac struck a motorcycle rider, and the motorcycle got stuck under the car and was dragged. The Cadillac reversed, trying to dislodge the motorcycle, and hit a pedestrian." The cops came on the scene, identified themselves and then fired (one of the suspects may have had a gun). One of the suspects was shot dead while the three others were taken into custody. The Daily News reports, "Investigators said no weapon was found on the dead man, but noted that the weapon might have been tossed during the chase or hidden somewhere in the car. They were awaiting a search warrant Thursday morning."

Yesterday, the Jersey City police said that officer Marc DiNardo, who was shot in the face by a shooting suspect last week, was not expected to survive and that his "demise is imminent." The 37-year-old father of three is still on life support (his family decided to donate his organs) but is expected to be taken off life support some time today. A fellow police officer read a statement from DiNardo's family, "Marc was not a selfish man. He was a moral man, a man who gave of himself to those who could not care for themselves." And early this morning along Jersey City's Communipaw Avenue, three robbery suspects shot at police officers (at least nine times). No one was shot; the suspects were all arrested after ramming their car into a police cruiser. Update: DiNardo died at 9:35 a.m.; NJ.com reports, "DiNardo, who would have turned 38 Wednesday, is survived by his wife, two daughters, ages 4 and 1, a 3-year-old son and his parents. His father is a retired Jersey City police lieutenant."

Just over a week after an undercover NYPD officer fatally shot 49-year-old Shem Walker, loved ones and community leaders gathered around his mother's Clinton Hill stoop, the site of the deadly altercation in which the details still remain unclear. Bitterness over the incident was clearly in the air yesterday with the harshest words coming from Councilwoman Letitia James, who said, “I say to the NYPD, get your lies straight." The Brooklyn DA's office is currently investigating the shooting as the identity of the officer remains unknown—just that he is a seven-year NYPD veteran and is also black. A minister at the vigil yesterday said, "Police officers are paid to protect and serve, but they are also paid for their judgment. Too often it is the case that their judgment is off with people of color." Tonight a funeral will be held for Walker at Full Gospel Assembly of God with Reverend Al Sharpton delivering the eulogy.

More on the story of the Brooklyn army veteran who was killed by an undercover cop during a drug sting in Clinton Hill. The Daily News now reports that the "undercover cop was wearing earphones to keep in touch with his NYPD team and didn't hear an irate Brooklyn homeowner's command to get off his stoop until it was too late...When the undercover officer didn't budge from the Clinton Hill stoop Saturday night, resident Shem Walker kicked the man he thought was a vagrant in the back of the head, sources said." One source said, "With the earphones on, the cop just didn't hear anything. The next he knew, someone had kicked him, and the fight starts, with a tragic end." The police have contended that Walker grabbed the cop's gun; some witnesses say they didn't hear the cop identify himself as a police officer.

It's been over a day since news first broke that a man had been fatally shot outside his mother's Clinton Hill home by an undercover cop and there are still many more questions than answers. We know that 49-year-old Shem Walker stepped outside his mother's brownstone on Lafayette Avenue for a cigarette and discovered a plain clothes cop sitting on her steps. A witness says that he heard Walker shout, "Get out of here or I'll move you myself!" and that the two then tumbled down the steps. Walker is said to have had a reputation of shooing people off the family's steps with success.

A 49-year-old handyman who was up from Pennsylvania visiting his sick mother in Clinton Hill was shot last night by an undercover cop in a separate drug bust that went awry. Shem Walker had just finished cooking his family dinner when he told them that was going out to buy cigarettes in the Brooklyn neighborhood around 8 p.m.

Last night, three police officers were hit by bullet fragments when, WABC 7 reports, "they tried to thwart an attack by a pit bull terrier in a public housing complex on the Upper East Side." The pit bull's owner, who police say deliberately set the dogs on the cops, was also hit by a fragment. NYPD spokesman Deputy Commissioner Paul Brown said, "The bullets fragmented and shattered. They were in the hallway, a very confined space."

According the wires, a man walked into the 109th Precinct on Union Street in Queens and stabbed a person. (The Post says the stabbing victim is a woman; 1010 WINS says it's unclear if the victim is a civilian or police officer). The suspect then walked towards police officers, who shot him three times in the chest. The suspect and stabbing victim were taken to the hospital, as were at least two other officers. The 109th Precinct, which covers "downtown Flushing, East Flushing, Queensboro Hill, College Point, Malba, Whitestone, Beechhurst and Bay Terrace," is closed—all arrests are being sent to the 111th Precinct.

The NYPD Football Team won its game, 18-9, over the FDNY's "Bravest" team yesterday. The Fun City Bowl matchup, which took place at Hofstra, was marked with sadness, as the NYPD team's was thinking about teammate and colleague Omar Edwards, who was fatally shot while off-duty in Harlem by another cop last Thursday. The NYPD Finest players wore Edwards' number and initials on their helmet; Seventh Precinct Sgt. Dave Reilly also shaved "RIP Omar" in his hair. He told Newsday, "It felt good to win this one for Omar. He was the nicest guy in the world." Officer Joel Sussman, who worked with Edwards as a housing officer, told the Post Edwards, who was 25, had opted out of playing this season because he wanted to spend more time with his wife and two young children, adding, "If this didn't happen, he'd be here rooting us on." Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was also present for part of the game, "Obviously, [the players] very devastated. It's very difficult for all of them. ... This is obviously a very emotional experience."

Last Thursday afternoon, Darnell Williams was at the Utica Avenue subway station in Brooklyn, heading home from Frederick Douglass Academy, when he was shot in the knee. The gunfire came from two police officers' struggle with a reportedly schizophrenic subway panhandler, who had stabbed one of the officers in the chest with a screwdriver. The panhandler was reaching for one of the cops' guns, so the cop fought for control (the gun went off twice) and then the stabbed partner fired three times, wounding the panhandler—and also hitting Williams. The 17-year-old told the Daily News, "I ran as soon as I heard the fighting. I was still running when I felt a sting in my leg," and added that people on the platform were reassuring, "People were saying, 'Just relax. Everything is going to be okay.' I just fell down when I saw the blood." Williams' father, who said a police lieutenant visited to apologize, noting how his son is hobbling around on crutches, "It's going to take quite a while before he can go back to school."

Yesterday afternoon, police officers shot and wounded a subway panhandler after he stabbed a cop with a screwdriver. Apparently the panhandler first went to the undercover cops and asked for one a cigarette. The Post reports, "The 26-year-old officer [Tyrone Barrionuevo] flashed his badge and identified himself. Moments later, the crazed smoker pulled out the 6-inch screwdriver and tried to plunge it into the cop's chest near his shoulder." The incident occurred at the Utica Avenue subway station in Crown Heights.

Earlier this morning, police officers wounded a 21-year-old man inside a Bronx apartment. WABC 7 reports, "Police has responded to the apartment after reports that Jiminial was fighting his ex-girlfriend, who was armed with a knife" (the Willis Avenue apartment may have been the ex-girlfriend's). Jiminal was allegedly armed with a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson gun and pointed it at police. When Jiminal refused to drop the gun, police fired 12 times at him. While Jiminal's condition is unknown, it's believed his injuries are non-life-threatening; two police officers were taken to the hospital for treatment of trauma as well.

Yesterday morning, police killed a Bronx man who had been threatening to kill his family, allegedly saying, "I have to kill the children and my wife and send them to heaven. I don't care about killing myself and going to hell." Mauricio Jacques, 35, had been holding his wife with one hand while a 10-inch knife was in the other; their three children, ages 5 to 11, were also present. Cops had tried to negotiate with him for an hour; WCBS 2 reports that Jacques agreed to surrender but " then lunged with a 10-inch knife at officers, who tried to subdue Jacques with a stun gun and rubber pellets. Undeterred, he stabbed an officer in the abdomen of his protective vest and slashed another's vest near the neck." The cops used the Taser on him again, but that didn't stop him, so one cop grabbed his wife while two others fired six shots at Jacques. Last week, the police fatally shot a woman who slashed a police officer.

This morning, the police shot and killed a woman threatening them with a knife in Brooklyn. WCBS 2 reports, "According to police, the woman attacked the officer on Remsen Avenue just after 7:15 a.m... The woman reportedly slashed the officer in the hands. Police were forced to open fire, fatally striking the woman." The police officer, who had deep lacerations, is in stable condition. Last fall, when a police officer fatally shot a chair-wielding man, the NYPD found it fell within department guidelines (a spokeperson said, "Basically, was there an imminent threat to life or serious injury? That is the defining statement").

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.

While the fatal police shooting of a bat-wielding Bronx man was initially characterized as a domestic dispute, his family says Alex Figueroa was defending his 18-year-old stepdaughter's honor.

The ME's office said that two brothers, fatally shot by two police officers early Sunday morning, had been shot in the back. The NYPD says the shooting appears to fall within departmental guidelines, because the police were fired upon when they came upon a brawl outside the RJ's Place, a club in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. Police say brothers Dwayne David and Kayshawn Forde were armed and had ignored the cops' orders to drop their guns. Still, David's and Forde's mother said, "My question is, Why were they shot in the back if they were shooting at police? I want answers from the cops." (The police say the men were trying to run away.) Mayor Bloomberg said, "What I'm satisfied with is the investigation that's being done right now. And until the investigation is complete, nobody really knows what happened."

">fired the shot, now the city admits a detective accidentally fired his gun into Sergeant Dexter Brown's back. The city wants Brown's $31 million lawsuit (he has permanent damage to his spine) to be dismissed, since it was an accident. Brown, now retired and living in Mississippi, told Newsday about being frustrated for a decade, "This is about much, much more than the money. I'm very dejected and taken aback, even to the point of borderline depression. The police department has put up obstacles to telling the truth. We want the truth to be told."

Early this morning, police shot a man who had fired at two other people in Bushwick. WNBC reports that when police responded to a call about shots fired, "they arrived to find a man with a gun trying to get inside a building on Central Avenue." The man refused to drop his gun and instead fired at the police, who returned fire. A witness told the Daily News there were two men involved with the shooting, "They weren't yelling or screaming, they just started shooting. They were shooting wild, like Wild West. They hit a woman who was helping her kids get inside the building." The woman, the shooter and another man (believed to be the second shooter, injured in an earlier gun fight) were taken to Brookdale University Hospital.

Law enforcement sources think Jason Aiello, a former NYPD sergeant, wanted to commit "suicide by cop" yesterday. After escaping the psychiatric facility at a local hospital early Tuesday morning, Aiello was fatally shot after refusing to put down his weapons outside his Staten Island home.