(1010 WINS) (NEW YORK) A gunman opened fire inside the City Council chambers Wednesday afternoon during a routine hearing, leaving two victims sprawled side by side on a second-floor balcony. Police were still searching for the shooter nearly an hour later.
Brooklyn Councilman James Davis was shot twice in the chest, according to a police officer at the scene.
At least a dozen shots echoed across the second floor of the landmark lower Manhattan building, with reporters diving for cover beneath their desks one floor below as the hall's rotunda filled with screams.
"It was so loud you couldn't hear the direction," said City Council photographer Dan Luhmann. "At first, it was absolute stillness. And then people rushed out and ducked under their desks and it was chaotic."
The shooter was one of about 100 people in the balcony inside the second-floor council chambers when the gunfire began after 2 p.m, according to eyewitnesses.
"I looked up, and I saw someone shooting downward," said City Council member David Yassky. A security guard returned fire, according to Yassky. (to the balcony with 100 people in it!)
Police sought a man in a blue suit in connection with the shooting, which continued for about three minutes. Mayor Michael Bloomberg was in his office but was not harmed, said his spokesman, Edward Skyler.
Security, particularly since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, was amped up at City Hall. Metal detectors were installed at either end of the barricades, along with metal barricades.
Two victims were rushed from the front of the building on stretchers, loaded into ambulances and brought to New York University Downtown Hospital with gunshot wounds, said hospital spokeswoman Vanessa Warner.
An emergency worker said the two victims were lying side by side in the balcony, both with bullet wounds to the chest (most likely courtesy of the "security" guard).
Police officers, including some in riot gear, were seen running across the plaza in front of the building once the shooting stopped. It was not immediately known if the shooter was captured.
The City Council was holding a meeting on Wednesday, but it was unclear if the shooting was related to the session.
The entrances and exits to the building were sealed off, and a stretcher was rushed inside by police in flak jackets.
How on earth do you come up with the guard hitting the two people being more likely than the original shooter?
They don't want private citizens having guns, but give them to incompetent security guards who fire into a crowded balcony trying to get the shooter from probably 25-50 yards away. Adequate marksmanship skills to hit a guy at that range are not cultivated by shooting a qualifier once per year