...and again, and again... (Empire State Building Shooting)

[kgbsquirrel]

On the nooz (both Fox and CNN) now.

A "worker who was fired yesterday" shoots 5 to 10 people at the Empire State Building. Suspect reported killed by NYPD. Reportedly "shooting indiscriminately at people."


ETA:

"Confirming 10 people were injured."

"Unclear if the shooter was killed by the police or committed suicide."

2nd ETA:

"2 Dead, 8 Injured."

"Suspect killed by Police."

[TechMan]

http://www.myfoxny.com/story/19363141/shooting-outside-empire-state-building

At least 5 victims and the gunman was killed.

NYPD and FBI are investigating. Apparently a dispute between 2 co-workers.

I expect Bloomy to take full advantage of the situation.   

[K Frame]

Unpossible.

Guns are illegal and evil in New York City.

[kgbsquirrel]

Paralel thread in the politics section. I started that one there cause I figured this would go P pretty quickly.

[longeyes]

Meanwhile, overnight, in another gun-control capitol, Chicago, 19 people were shot in Business As Usual.

America is unraveling.  No one should be surprised. 

[kgbsquirrel]

Meanwhile, overnight, in another gun-control capitol, Chicago, 19 people were shot in Business As Usual.

America is unraveling.  No one should be surprised. 

But that's not nooz worthy! Only the mass (think of the chillinz!) shootings matter because Business-As-Usual murders don't advance socialist political agendas.

[AZRedhawk44]

Observation bias.

300+ million people.  There are X% of people shot every year, regardless of  population level.  If X = 0.01% (way higher than reality but I don't know the real number), then when population is 50 million, it's 5000 people a year.  When the population is 300 million, it's 30,000 people.

Now introduce internet, cell phone cameras, rapid response news teams, and news cycles that react to consumer paranoia on particular topics.  We hear about EVERY shooting right now.  Seriously, who didn't think that at least a dozen people were shot in Chicago just about every night?  There's well over 500 murders a year there, on average, and most shootings (well over 80%, isn't it?) don't result in death.  There's probably somewhere around 5000 shootings every year just in Chicago.

[AZRedhawk44]

Holy schnikey!  The POLICE "accidentally" shot several innocent people.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_EMPIRE_STATE_BUILDING_SHOOTING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-24-11-49-15

Police killed the suspect and at least nine others were wounded, some possibly by police gunfire, city officials said.

Um... I'm in favor of some gun control.  As in:  positive target identification, and knowing your target and what lies behind it.

[MechAg94]

I guess the shooter must have taken an overnight trip to Georgia to buy his gun then went back.  He certainly didn't buy the gun in NY right?

[kgbsquirrel]

Holy schnikey!  The POLICE "accidentally" shot several innocent people.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_EMPIRE_STATE_BUILDING_SHOOTING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-24-11-49-15

Um... I'm in favor of some gun control.  As in:  positive target identification, and knowing your target and what lies behind it.

Good thing the shooter only had a low capacity* handgun or some people might have been sho--oh, wait.

Yeah I'm feeling extra-snarky this morning.

*Just reported as a 9 round magazine .45.

[TechMan]

Holy schnikey!  The POLICE "accidentally" shot several innocent people.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_EMPIRE_STATE_BUILDING_SHOOTING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-24-11-49-15

Um... I'm in favor of some gun control.  As in:  positive target identification, and knowing your target and what lies behind it.

Could have been some jerking of the gun due to the NY1 or NY2 triggers....

[Battle Monkey of Zardoz]

Could have been some jerking of the gun due to the NY1 or NY2 triggers....

Or they can't hit *expletive deleted*it and shouldn't be working as cops.

[zxcvbob]

It kind of reads like *all* of the injuries except the original victim were caused by the police.

[kgbsquirrel]

It kind of reads like *all* of the injuries except the original victim were caused by the police.

Yeah. From the witness reports trickling in, this guy walked up to one person in particular that he had an issue with, executed him, and then tried to walk away. I don't suppose there is any cctv footage from the "most secure building in new york"?

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Surveillance video footage shows Johnson reaching into a bag, pulling out a .45-caliber pistol and pointing it at officers, Kelly said. The officers drew their weapons and started firing, killing Johnson, Kelly said.

"These officers ... had absolutely no choice," Kelly said. "This individual took a gun out very close to them and perhaps fired at them."

Kelly said authorities believe police may be responsible for some of the injuries because of the limited capacity of the gunman's weapon.

The two officers fired a total of 14 rounds at Johnson, Kelly said. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said some of the nine wounded may have been shot by police in the mayhem. Johnson's semi-automatic weapon was equipped to fire at least eight rounds; at least one round was left in the clip, police said. Another loaded magazine was in his briefcase.

[Waitone]

[snark] Maybe at long last NY will once and for all crack down on gun violence and enact strict gun ownership and possession laws. [/snark]

[Battle Monkey of Zardoz]

"These officers ... had absolutely no choice," Kelly said. "This individual took a gun out very close to them and perhaps fired at them."

Your right. But they have a responsibility to *expletive deleted*ing hit what they aim at. Otherwise it's negligence in my opinion

[AZRedhawk44]

Your right. But they have a responsibility to *expletive deleted* hit what they aim at. Otherwise it's negligence in my opinion

It's negligence according to the COURTS when us lowly peons accidentally shoot people while defending ourselves.  Should be personal liability on the po-po as well, since they're often held up as the only ones "professional enough" to be armed in society.

[Battle Monkey of Zardoz]

Interesting.

http://us.foxnews.mobi/quickPage.html?page=26048&content=78766507&pageNum=-1

A witness told police that laid-off clothing designer Jeffrey Johnson fired at officers, but ballistics evidence so far contradicts that, authorities said.

NYPD would never lie!!

[Perd Hapley]

laid-off clothing designer Jeffrey Johnson...

He's the first gay man to carry out a mass shooting. What a pioneer.

[Jamie B]

He's the first gay man to carry out a mass shooting. What a pioneer.

Racist!

[kgbsquirrel]

This doesn't bode well for the NYPD...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_EMPIRE_STATE_BUILDING_SHOOTING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-24-11-49-15

After waiting for Ercolino, 41, to come to work, Johnson walked up to him, pulled out a .45-caliber pistol and fired at his head, Kelly said. After he fell to the ground, Johnson stood over him and shot four more times, a witness told investigators.  ...  A witness had told police that Johnson fired at the officers, but authorities say ballistics evidence doesn't support that. Johnson's weapon held seven rounds, they said. He fired five times at Ercolino, one round was still in the gun and one was ejected when officers secured it, authorities said.

So, guy A murders guy B and then walks off without shooting at anyone else. Now enter Bloomberg's personal army. Guy A gets hosed.... and in the process the cops shoot nine bystanders. Isn't this the sort of wild shooting, blood-in-the-streets, crap that Bloomy keeps predicting will happen if petty civilians are allowed to carry guns?    But remember, these cops are the only ones "professional enough" to carry a gun in NYC.


Oh, and just a little extra bovine excrement. You know, for icing.

"New York City, as you know, is the safest big city in the country, and we are on pace to have a record low number of murders this year," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

[AZRedhawk44]

Interesting.

http://us.foxnews.mobi/quickPage.html?page=26048&content=78766507&pageNum=-1


NYPD would never lie!!

The cop-worship in that link is atrocious.

If bullets fired by police or fragments struck civilians, then the officers were also lucky to be alive, since bullets could have boomeranged in their direction, said Eugene O'Donnell, a professor of police studies at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

The sainted dieties of the all-powerful 9-11 watch over them...    

NYPD officers are lucky they're in NYC.  If I've been shot at or hit, I don't care who I get shot by... if I get shot, I'm putting down the *expletive deleted*er that put a bullet in me.  Period.  3-dimensional perfect mirror ricochets are the least of your concern.

He said officers are trained to fire only as a last resort and must fire multiple shots because only one in five generally hit the intended target.

Funny... I train to make every shot a hit on the intended target, and to put multiple successive hits on the same target because 1 is seldom enough.  My competitive record doesn't show 100% hit rate with pistol, but it does show about 85% in very dynamic run-n-gun environments, and that's with tiny little 6" targets that are much smaller than a torso.  And 100% with rifle to 600 yards.

Looks like NYC is getting ready to throw this particular batch of goons under the bus, though.  Good.

Those injured can sue the city for damages for personal injury if they can prove officers did not exercise care reasonably required under similar circumstances. The family of a woman killed by police in 1993 received nearly $4 million.

The woman, Bonnie Vargas, was taken hostage by a gunman fleeing a bank robbery in Manhattan. She was shot three times by police when they exchanged fire with the hostage taker. The appeals court noted that the patrol guide said police in a hostage situation could not fire a weapon "when doing so will unnecessarily endanger innocent persons."

The court also wrote: "The immunity afforded a municipality for its employee's discretionary conduct does not extend to situations where the employee, a police officer, violates acceptable police practice."

O'Donnell said it was likely lawyers will test the adequacy of Friday's police shooting.

"I'm sure there's people chasing the ambulances into the emergency room as we speak," he said.

The poor dear-hearts.  Being held accountable for their actions.  The humanity... the horror.





I move that the NY1 and NY2 triggers be retired in favor of the NY3 trigger.  It shall weigh 427 pounds and be augmented by a forged titanium block that permanently covers the firing pin hole on the pistol's breech face.  NYPD duty holsters shall require 5 points of contact to draw the weapon, only after a successful fingerprint scan that is sent via wi-fi to police headquarters for validation.

[Blakenzy]

One suspect, NINE INNOCENT BYSTANDERS SHOT... 



No, that's not good enough...

There:

[Jamie B]

The NYPD and Bloomie are going to be in deep sheepdip on this shoot.

There were way too many bystanders taking video and still shots of the shooting.

Saw a tourist with video on CNN last night who captured the beginning of the shooting up until Johnson was down on the sidewalk.

He saw bodies other than Johnson after the cops had been shooting, and attributed the other victims to police rounds.

Bloomberg and his personal police force are going to get hammered for this debacle.