Empire State Shooting

By now we've all heard of the shooting that took place in front of the Empire State Building the morning of August 24th.  One victim dead and the gunman shot by two NYPD police officers also dead, with nine wounded and bleeding out on the streets.  A gory scene for sure, but what might not be making the rounds as quickly as the initial news is that ALL nine of those wounded during the shooing were victims of the police officers trigger fingers.

Fox News of all places had this to say about the wounded bystanders:

All nine bystanders caught in the crossfire of a shooting outside New York City's iconic Empire State Building were wounded by two police officers who had never fired their weapons on duty, authorities confirmed Saturday.

While the shooter did turn around abruptly and aim his gun at the officers giving them every right to open fire, you'd think there would be more consequences against the NYPD and the two officers in general for injuring nine innocent civilians.  Further testing after the gruesome morning events proved that:

"it appears that all nine of the victims were struck either by fragments or by bullets fired by police,"

Thank goodness none of the injuries are life threatening, however this doesn't take away from the fact that these nine people who were walking down the street on what seemed to be any given morning were abruptly hospitalized due to shoddy police work.  Unsurprising to absolutely no one Commisioner Ray Kelly applauds the work of his officers, being quoted as saying the officers had:

"a gun right in their face" and "responded quickly, and they responded appropriately."

As well as:

"These officers, having looked at the tape myself, had absolutely no choice,"

Once again as proven time and time again, if you're wearing a badge it is legal to shoot and maim just about anyone for any reason.  If you don't have that badge though expect to be murdered in cold blood for all to see.  Instilling that fear in the populace so we all know, don't mess with the police!

As always this blog is skewed towards putting a negative spin on police actions.  I was not there and have read the same news as many other people around the nation have.  I am sure that these officers did what it took to protect their lives and in the moment what they thought they needed to do to protect bystanders.

It is just very sad that those bystanders ended up being the victims of sixteen rounds shot at a perpetrator in an extremely robust section of New York City.