In the shooting that took place last week at the Empire State building a former employer was shot and killed by a former employee. These would have been the only two causalities were it not for the police officers who responded. Instead, the police officers not only took out the gunman but they also hit nine other innocent people.
While the police were able to shoot and kill the alleged gunman, 53-year-old Jeffrey Johnson, they also apparently had a difficult time making sure to hit only their target. American citizens who obtain a Concealed Weapons Permit are told by law enforcement that they are responsible for all people downrange when they elect to use their weapon to protect themselves in public. Therefore, it is necessary that citizens be educated and knowledgeable about their weapon and how to handle it properly.
America is now waiting to see if the same standard will be applied to New York City police who responded to the incident.
According to the Washington Post,
In the initial chaos Friday, it wasn’t clear whether Johnson or the officers were responsible for the trail of the wounded. But based on ballistic and other evidence, “it appears that all nine of the victims were struck either by fragments or by bullets fired by police,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters Saturday at a community event in Harlem.
Police officials have said the officers appeared to have no choice but to shoot Johnson, whose body had 10 bullet wounds in the chest, arms and legs.
Police determined that three people were struck by whole bullets — two of which were removed from victims at the hospital — and the rest were grazed “by fragments of some sort,” Kelly said.
Two women with leg wounds and a man with a wound to his buttocks required surgery and remained hospitalized Saturday. They were listed in stable condition.
This is such a royal screw up by two of NYPD’s finest that even Dr. Ignatius Piazza, with Front Sight, wrote on the incident:
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg needs to implement REAL gun control after two of his officers wounded nine bystanders as they attempted to stop an armed suspect no more than 5 yards in front of them!
That’s right, the suspect as you will see in the surveillance video is no more than 5 yards in front of them, yet two of Bloomberg’s finest, wounded nine innocent bystanders in the process of bringing the suspect to the ground.
Bloomberg needs to make sure his New York City Cops can control their guns. Gun Control is the ability hit what you are aiming at to immediately stop a lethal confrontation. It is best done with two hands on the weapon!
He also went on to point out NYPD’s sad statistics regarding their officer’s gun control abilities,
I’m not blaming the New York City Cops for their miserable hit ratio, which historically is below 25% and was likely well below 25% in this shooting, if you don’t count all the hits they put on innocent bystanders! I’m blaming Bloomberg and the New York City police administration for failing to provide proper training for their police officers and failing to encourage or pay for their officers to train regularly and repeatedly.
While the gun control lobby was out in full force calling for more gun control in light of the incident, I didn’t hear that many people calling for police officers to control their guns a bit more carefully. While they were right to take down the bad guy, the problem still remains and has not been addressed and that problem is, will the officers be held responsible and face criminal charges regarding the people they shot? I’m guessing since it’s New York City and Mayor Bloomberg is in charge that this will quietly go away as the media focuses on the dead gunman.
Watch the CCTV of the shooting incident and then view Mayor Michael Bloombergs’ pitiful press conference where he had to admit his officers shot innocent people.
