While responding to a firearm dispute in an East 93rd Street apartment at 1AM on Sunday, a police sergeant shot a 15 year old boy. The boy, Luke Timothy Saintel, says he was unarmed and his back was turned to the police officer, setting off anger from Saintel's mother and a police department investigation into what happened. Police say that six officers responded to a call that there was a fight at a three bedroom apartment at 419 East 93rd Street. Fifty people were at the apartment and claim there weren't any incidents. There are two stories about what happened after the police came: "A sergeant who saw the shooting said he observed the teenager reach into his waistband and turn his back, as if drawing a gun" and it was also "possible the police gun was fired unintentionally," according to the AP.
Another police source says Saintel could have been hit when the bullet ricocheted off the wall. At any rate, either a bullet or a fragment did go into the teen's leg and he was taken to New York Presbyterian. To add to the night's events, the police initially prevented Penny Saintel from entering his room until she could prove she really was his mother! She said, "My son is no angel, but he didn't deserve this...They didn't have the right to shoot a gun into a room full of kids."
One of those kids was the son of Assemblyman Pete Grannis who seems to confirm suggestions that the police may have gotten addresses mixed up and gone to the wrong building. Terrance Grannis said he noticed a fight at a building (one that the police had asked people for directions to), but believes the police stopped in at 419 East 93rd because "they saw so many people coming in and out of this building." The Daily News says the police did find an unloaded 9mm gun in the closet after the party was cleared out and two siblings "could be charged in connection with the gun and for allegedly serving alcohol to minors."
