The shocking shooting death at City Hall of Councilman James E. Davis has raised a number of questions, including those about security procedures at City Hall. Davis was shot by a political opponent, Othniel Askew, who was running for Davis' council seat in Brooklyn. Davis did not need to go through metal detectors as he entered City Hall, and as Askew had accompanied him, Askew bypassed metal detectors as well. MSNBC said:
City election records showed that Askew had gathered more than 2,000 petitions and raised money to challenge Davis for re-election later this year but was barred from the ballot because of a filing error. Erik Engquist, a political columnist for the Park Slope Courier, told MSNBC television that Askew was extremely upset by the ruling.
As an aide tells Newsday, "Security is a joke. It's a well-known fact among City Council workers. I'd hate to say it, but it wouldn't be the hardest thing to get a gun in there . . . Frankly, they put one cop at each metal detector and they have a lot of people going through, and it wouldn't be very hard for somebody to just walk by it."
An early obituary for AP on Councilman Davis.
