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<p>July 25, 2003 -- ONE of the City Hall assassin's former lovers said he saw no warning of Othniel Askew's homicidal rage.</p> <p>The lover, a 36-year-old Brooklyn man who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity, said, "It's amazing because, he seemed so damn calm."</p>

<p>July 25, 2003 -- The City Hall killer was an HIV-positive man who made meticulous preparations for his own death before setting out to assassinate a political rival who he believed was blackmailing him because he was gay, law-enforcement sources said yesterday.</p>

NEW YORK -- Hours before he gunned down Councilman James Davis, Othniel Askew told the FBI that Davis offered him $45,000 to give up a primary election challenge -- and threatened to hurt his family if he did not, law enforcement sources said Thursday. Askew, in what investigators described as a rambling statement, also claimed Davis threatened to expose him as gay, the sources told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. A City Council spokeswoman called the allegations "preposterous," and investigators said they have not corroborated Askew's claims. But the claims underscore the complex, volatile relationship between the two...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Hours before he gunned down Councilman James Davis, Othniel Askew told the FBI that Davis offered him $45,000 to give up a primary election challenge - and threatened to hurt his family if he did not, law enforcement sources said Thursday. Askew, in what investigators described as a rambling statement, also claimed Davis threatened to expose him as gay, the sources told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. A City Council spokeswoman called the allegations "preposterous," and investigators said they have not corroborated Askew's claims. But the claims underscore the complex, volatile relationship between the...

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,...

<p>July 24, 2003 -- All of a sudden, Rudy Giuliani doesn't look quite so paranoid, does he?</p> <p>All of a sudden, maybe the imposing City Hall security he insisted on - even before 9/11 - doesn't seem quite so silly.</p> <p>Does it?</p>

<p>July 24, 2003 -- Councilman James Davis unwittingly brought his killer with him to City Hall and helped him bypass the security surrounding the building that's home to the mayor and City Council.</p> <p>Until yesterday, elected officials such as Davis - a former cop who legally carried a 9mm handgun - were exempt from rules requiring everyone entering City Hall Plaza to pass through metal detectors.</p>

<p>July 24, 2003 -- City Councilman James Davis was shot to death inside City Hall yesterday - blown away by a political rival he escorted around metal detectors minutes earlier.</p> <p>Davis, an ex-cop who carried a gun, never got a shot off, but an officer assigned to guard another politician shot and killed Davis' attacker.</p>

Reporters diving for cover at City Hall. Shots are coming from second floor.

NEW YORK, July 23 — A man on the second-floor balcony of City Hall pulled a handgun and began firing Wednesday afternoon, reportedly injuring two people inside the building in lower Manhattan. Screams echoed through City Hall as about a dozen shots rang out shortly after 2 p.m., sending people diving for cover beneath their desks. One police officer at the scene said there were reports of two police officers injured, but that could not immediately be confirmed. However, two ambulances were seen leaving the plaza outside City Hall. Mayor Michael Bloomberg was in his office but was not harmed,...

NEW YORK - A gunman opened fire during a meeting inside City Council chambers Wednesday afternoon, killing a city councilman who has crusaded against urban violence and wounding another person. Police swarmed the lower Manhattan neighborhood searching for the gunman. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was in his office during the shooting and unharmed, ruled out terrorism. Metal detectors have been installed at either end of the plaza outside the building, along with barricades. "We do not know how someone got a gun in the building," Bloomberg said. "Obviously, there was a breakdown someplace." The gunman's motive was unknown, said the...

<p>NEW YORK — An aspiring political challenger yesterday shot and killed a City Council member, a vocal critic of urban violence, during a meeting inside City Hall.</p> <p>A plainclothes New York Police Department detective then shot and killed the assailant.</p>

If there is one thing that everyone in Brooklyn who knew Othniel Boaz Askew could agree on, it is that he had big plans. At 31, he had tried his hand at the real estate business, rebuilding a row house in Fort Greene, and had served in the military, friends said. But he was always looking for the next big thing. "He had grandiose ideas about becoming popular in politics," said Larry Caparaso, who lives in an elegant white row house a few doors down from the house on South Elliott Place where Mr. Askew lived. "He was tremendously intelligent,...