Posted on 08/24/2012 8:25:11 PM PDT by chessplayer
As the two officers confronted a gunman in front of the Empire State Building on a busy Friday morning, they had to make a snap decision: Do they open fire in the middle of Midtown?
From a distance of less than 10 feet, the officers, Craig Matthews and Robert Sinishtaj, answered in unison; one shot nine times and the other seven.
Investigators believe at least 7 of those 16 bullets struck the gunman, said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman. But the officers also struck some, if not all, of the nine bystanders who were wounded.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Oh, lawd, here we go. I noticed at the Bloomie presser that he COMPLETELY took over the microphone. Ray Kelly was looking PISSED!
In a crowd its expected but I’m not sure what else they could have done.
Two wounded rather then ten dead.
How many rounds did they squeeze into bystanders after the guy was dead? 10 feet seems close enough that that the first couple shots should have already done the job.
Two?
Two?
CNN has the shooting video. Cops had to do it.
Do you have a link?
Prayers going up for those officers that the injured heal quickly and the officers can find peace after accidentally hurting bystanders. And thanks to them for standing on the front lines against the sub-human violent snakes in our communities.
The police panicked. They were not well trained, or perhaps they were simply psychologically unfit for the job.
I do love the NYT’s sympathetic treatment of the police’s decison to shoot in a crowded street.
Now, if instead of 2 of NY’s finest it had been a “civilian” with concealed carry license who did this shoot, can anyone believe that the tone of the article would have been remotely similar?
Maybe this is evidence that the police should be disarmed - they are too great a threat to those they are supposed to protect.
Teach them to shoot .45ACP; that will stop a man dead in his tracks. Why use a 9mm when .45ACP is available? Just increases the odds the bad guys lives too long. Of course it pre-supposes the police can shoot to begin with.
I am not criticizing the policemen with that statement.
There was a story a while back where a guy accidentally shot his wife in Detroit while killing a home invader. The wife said she forgives the husband.
At a distance of 10 feet, 7 hits out of 16 shots comes to a 44% accuracy rate. 10 FEET! and the other 56% went where? We know that at least nine innocent bystanders were wounded in this shooting. And by coincidence the two heroes missed the killer nine times. I know that the NYPD is one of the most honored in the country, but this is unacceptable. Maybe they should be disarmed.
Live or visit New York City? Not me. It is too dangerous.
I’ll Take my chances down here with the drug smugglers and UDAs.
Many of the wounds to bystanders were “mostly in the lower extremity areas, such as legs and ankles, which would be consistent with some of the ricochet fragmented ballistics we found,” Mr. Browne said.
And you have been in how many gunfights? No amount of training can prepare any police officers for this sort of thing.
Sorry, hon. It sends me to a page with a lot of links.
When 5-6 people are pointing their guns at a perp, 16 shots can be discharged in mere seconds.
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