11 People Shot Outside Empire State Building

[pdogg]

August 24, 2012

Eleven People Shot Outside Empire State Building

By JAMES BARRON, DAVID M. HALBFINGER and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

A clothing designer who had been fired from a Midtown Manhattan company shot and killed a former co-worker in the shadow of the Empire State Building on Friday morning and was then killed by the police, in a hail of gunfire in which nine bystanders were hurt, the authorities said.

Some of those injured might have been shot by the two police officers, who fired 16 rounds at the gunman, Jeffrey Johnson, 58, said Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly — based on the number of people shot and the fact that Mr. Johnson’s gun held only eight rounds.

None of the bystanders’ wounds were life-threatening, Mr. Kelly said.

The spasm of violence shortly after 9 a.m. shattered the routine bustle of the morning outside one of the world’s most famous tourist destinations and set off pandemonium at a busy intersection that was filled with pedestrians and cars. Visitors had begun crowding into the lobby of the building waiting to ascend to the observation deck on the 86th floor, which had already opened.

The former co-worker was identified by the police as Steve Ercolino.

A woman who worked with Mr. Ercolino and has a job in the same building as him said she was walking shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Ercolino when he got shot.

The woman, Irene Timan, 35, said they were just steps from the front door to their building at 10 West 33rd Street when she saw Mr. Johnson lurking behind a white van parked at the curb.

“I saw him pull a gun out from his jacket, and I thought to myself, ‘Oh my God, he’s going to shoot him’ — and I wanted to turn and push Steve out of the way,” Ms. Timan said, in a telephone interview from the precinct house where she was being interviewed. “I knew it, I just knew it was going to happen. But it was too late. Steve screamed, Jeff shot him, and I just turned and ran.”

She said Mr. Johnson did not say anything before shooting Mr. Ercolino once in the chest. “He didn’t say one word,” Ms. Timan said. She said she learned later that he also shot Mr. Ercolino in the head.

The violence, in an area that was packed with workers and visitors, yielded an enormous volume of first-hand accounts. Mr. Ercolino was shot at 9:03 a.m. and Mr. Johnson was killed minutes later.

Maureen Minuche, 45, said she was in a deli not far from the initial shooting scene buying breakfast when she heard people screaming. She said she pushed through a crowd of people standing around a body. “He was shot in the face, probably in the face, because he was disfigured,” she said.

Andrew Pellenberg, 23, and a friend, both from New Jersey, were also nearby, thinking about visiting the Empire State Building. “We heard 10 to 15 gunshots,” Mr. Pellenberg said, “and it was all in a 30-second span.”

Another witness, Rebecca Fox, said she was standing near the building when she saw crowds running away from the area. Then, she said, she saw a man “dead on the ground in front of the Empire State Building.” Officers had been alerted to the shooting by a construction worker who had followed Mr. Johnson from 10 West 33rd Street around the corner and up Fifth Avenue, said Mr. Kelly, who joined Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg at a briefing about two hours after the shooting.

Mr. Johnson, the commissioner said, was carrying a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun “in a bag under his arm.” Mr. Bloomberg said Mr. Johnson pulled out his gun on two officers who had confronted him “and tried to shoot the cops and kill the cops. They returned fire.”

The two officers and Mr. Johnson were about eight feet apart.

One law enforcement official said that based on the preliminary investigation, it appears that most or all of the bystanders were struck by one of the 16 police bullets – or fragments or ricochets from those rounds – that were fired by the two officers who confronted Mr. Johnson.

Detectives believe that Mr. Johnson had fired five shots at Mr. Ercolino and may have fired one shot at the police officers, the official said. There were two bullets left in the eight-round magazine of his gun so only one shot – the one apparently fired at the officers -- could have possibly hit one of the nine bystanders, the official said.

One of the officers fired nine times and the other seven times.

The official said that security surveillance video clearly shows the officers’ encounter with Mr. Johnson.

“It’s great video -- you see him drawing on the cops, you see the whole thing,” the official said. “The cops had no choice.”

At Bellevue Hospital Center, Robert Asika, 23, a ticket seller for Gray Line tours. emerged with his right arm in a sling. “The bullet came in and went out,” he said. “I’m very lucky.”

Mr. Asika said he had been shot by a police officer. Asked how he felt about that, he said, “I guess, you know, stuff happens.”

A spokeswoman for Bellevue said the hospital had admitted six patients wounded in the shooting, three men and three women. The youngest was 20, said the spokeswoman, Ana Marengo, and the oldest was 43. All were in stable condition, she said, and none had sustained life-threatening injuries. Three other shooting victims were being treated at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

The Empire State Building remained closed throughout the day.

Mr. Kelly said Mr. Johnson appeared to have no criminal record. He said that Mr. Johnson had worked at Hazan Imports for six years. “During a downsizing at the company about a year ago,” he said, “Johnson was laid off.” Mr. Kelly said that Mr. Johnson and Mr. Ercolino had filed harassment complaints against each other relating from a workplace dispute.

Mr. Johnson lived on the third floor of a six-story walk-up on East 82nd Street for about 18 months, said Guillermo Suarez, 72, the super of the building.

Every morning he had the same routine. He would leave the apartment between 7:30 and 8 a.m., say good morning and head to the McDonald’s on Third Avenue and 84th Street. After about 20 minutes, he would come back carrying a McDonald’s bag. He would nearly always wear the same thing — a tannish brown suit, sometimes with a tie. Then he would generally stay in the apartment the rest of the day.

He did the same thing on Friday morning, but this time he did not come back.

[TEXASMAC]

DT, so why do we stay here?? Help me??

[farangbah]

I believe this is from the New York Times, guys.

(it's a good idea, gents, to get in the habit of always citing sources at the top of any article...)