Cop shoots cop outside of Bronx fast-food restaurant

Status
Not open for further replies.

Desertdog

Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2002
Messages
1,980
Location
Ridgecrest Ca
I doubt if this gives enough info, but should an LEO shoot someone that is holding a gun on some one? Seems to me, by the time they got out of their car, went within range for a good shot, they should have been able to determine that there was a possibility the man with the gun wasn't trying to kill.

Cop shoots cop outside of Bronx fast-food restaurant
BY HERBERT LOWE
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local...1453550.story?coll=nyc-manheadlines-manhattan


A New York City police officer responding to a 911 call of an assault inside a White Castle restaurant in the Bronx shot and gravely wounded an off-duty officer holding a gun at the scene, police said.

The early morning shooting happened just hours after a city police officer collapsed and died, apparently of a heart attack, following a struggle with a group of suspects on the Upper East Side.

In the Bronx incident, the wounded officer, Eric Hernandez, 25, had apparently been jumped by as many as six men inside the restaurant, on Webster Avenue in the borough's Tremont section, before getting away, police said. The officer who shot him was one of two responding to a 911 call from the restaurant of an assault in progress, police said. When they arrived on the scene, Hernandez was pointing a gun at a man in the parking lot outside the restaurant, police said.

It appears that the responding officers, who were not identified, did not know that Hernandez was a police officer, police said. His badge was found in his pocket after the shooting.

The shooting is believed to be the NYPD's first friendly fire shooting since Desmond Robinson, who was in plainclothes, was shot in the back by an off-duty officer on May 22, 1994. Robinson had his gun drawn on a subway platform, and the officer mistook him for a criminal.

The Bronx shooting came hours after another officer died following a struggle with suspects on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Kevin Lee, a 10-year NYPD veteran, was part of a surveillance team that was tailing a group of men who appeared to be casing stores on Lexington Avenue shortly before 6 p.m., police said. After being told by employees at one of the stores that the men might have taken a laptop computer, the officers moved in to make an arrest.

Lee, 31 died at Lenox Hill Hospital just before 8 p.m. Friday. The cause of death remained undetermined.

The officer who shot Hernandez has worked 20 years on the force, but as of late morning yesterday had not been interviewed by detectives. He and his partner were taken to Jacobi Medical Center for observation, police said.

Hernandez, who joined the Police Department in 2004, was in intensive care at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx after undergoing surgery for the injuries suffered at about 5 a.m., officials said.

Hernandez, who had just finished a 4 p.m. to midnight shift on uniform patrol in the 52nd Police Precinct, was expected to undergo more surgery once his temperature reached an acceptable level, officials said.

He was shot once in each leg and once in the abdomen, police said. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the injuries would have been fatal on an older man.

After the shooting, Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly visited with Hernandez's father at the hospital. Other relatives were there, too.

"We don't have words to adequately console them in such awful circumstances," Bloomberg said at a news conference at St. Barnabas. While saying "we all still have a lot of questions about this incident," Bloomberg said it was "unavoidable in a situation like this, when life and death decisions are made in an instant."

According to Kelly, at 4:55 a.m., the woman who called 911 did so on behalf a patron being attacked. He said police were not sure whether Hernandez was waiting in line, or if he was already eating, or what caused the assault to take place. Police said they are reviewing surveillance tape taken from inside the restaurant.

Six suspects in the assault and two witnesses were taken to the 46th Police Precinct for questioning, police said.

Special correspondent Sarah Garland contributed to this story. The Associated Press also contributed to this article.
 
I doubt if this gives enough info, but should an LEO shoot someone that is holding a gun on some one? Seems to me, by the time they got out of their car, went within range for a good shot, they should have been able to determine that there was a possibility the man with the gun wasn't trying to kill.
Unless you are there you will never know.

Pilgrim
 
It sounds like the officer shot without really getting a picture of the situation. I was wondering if the person who called 911 was still talking to the dispatcher when the officers arrived. Not a whole lot of information here though so I hate judge too harshly.
 
it seems like NYC cops do this more often

then other cops. Not that I have hard proof of this but it seems to happen at least once or twice every couple of years in NY, I've heard of a similar case in Oakland CA.
I am willing to bet a couple of cups of coffee that there is a relation ship between strict gun laws and incidents of friendly fire of LE.
I know NY cops are not used to citizens having guns and tend to think of guns in the hand of non uniformed people as "bad guys" (I know this because my brother was one)
Where as in (say) rural AZ (like the really cool Showlow PD who were more interested in what knd of gun I had on, rather than , why I had one on me)
I think NYPD is more likely to shoot first because "only bad guys have guns"
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top