Posted on 07/24/2003 6:46:52 AM PDT by yonif
NEW YORK New York City Councilman James Davis, a retired New York police officer who represented the Crown Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn, was killed Wednesday when an assailant opened fire at City Hall.
Davis, a 41-year-old African-American, was shot twice in the chest by an unknown assailant during a routine City Council meeting, according to preliminary reports.
At least one other person was shot and is in critical condition, according to police.
An outspoken presence on the council, Davis joined the police department in 1983 after he was allegedly beaten by two white officers. In 1991, he started "Love Yourself, Stop the Violence," a nonprofit organization, to address growing urban violence.
Last summer, Davis was one of 12 council members on a 72-hour solidarity mission to Jerusalem. In an interview with The Jerusalem Post prior to his visit, Davis, who said he hoped to propose solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on his work fighting street gangs in New York, expressed his support for Israel's fight against terror. "I understand the Israeli soldiers who are fighting an enemy dressed like civilians," he said.
After returning, he voted in favor of a council resolution that urged US President George W. Bush to shut the PLO mission to the UN.
At press time, police were still searching for Davis's assailant, who was said to be one of 100 people on the second-floor balcony of City Hall at the time of the shooting.
City Hall, which has sharply increased security since the September 11, 2001 attacks, was evacuated shortly after the shooting and the nearby Brooklyn Bridge was shut down.
Officials were quick to dismiss the possibility of a terrorist attack, with Mayor Michael Bloomberg describing it in a hastily-convened press conference as an "attack on democracy."
"We will not stop until we find who did this. It is not terrorism; it appears to be random act. But we cannot allow this to go on, ever. This is an attack on all Americans," Bloomberg said.
And just like the DC snipers. Terrorism was rules out very quickly. They even went as far as to describe the shooters as white and it turns out Chief Moose knew they were black.....things that make you go hmmmm.
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