Yesterday, police tried to subdue a 24 year-old man with a gun on the Brooklyn Bridge, but he shot himself in the chest. The Daily News has extensive coverage of the incident, complete with photographs (including a dramatic one above), saying that the man fired 2 shots in the air around 10AM. Police came from 1 Police Plaza and yelled, "Get down!" while a NYPD helicopter flew overhead. The man, a Mexican immigrant, never pointed the gun at police, and simply turned it on himself. He was taken to NYU Downtown Hospital where he died. Tourists Steve Ellens and Diana Lucar-Ellens of Grand Rapids, WI, on a visit to their daughter in the Village, were on the scene and gave the local newspapers some quotes, like "That's the first time I saw a person get shot," "We were just getting used to the city, thinking it's not so bad and then this!" and "I just called our daughter to tell her what happened. She said, 'Oh, Mom, that's normal for New York.'" The Mayor's office and NYCVisit are probably going into conniptions, especially given perceptions of late.
The Post ends its article about the suicide with "Suicides on the Brooklyn Bridge are nothing new, but most people who decide to end their lives on the city landmark do so by taking a plunge into the East River."
