Thank God for the NYPD and the tough NYC gun laws. If we didn’t have Bloomberg’s Army who would clean up all the blood from the 10 people that were shot? Anyone who thinks having more police, outlawing guns, and depending on the authorities to protect us is either brain dead or a complete nitwit. The police don’t protect anyone. They show up after the death and destruction and interview the victims and witnesses. Next up – Bloomberg holds a press conference hailing his army, railing against guns, and calling for an increase in the NYPD budget.
My TBP reporters on the ground say the incident was spurred by somone trying to smuggle a 32 ounce Coke into the Empire State Building.
Up to 10 Shot Outside Empire State Building; Suspect Dead
Police say at least four people but as many 10 individuals were shot outside the Empire State Building Friday morning and the gunman is dead.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the gunman’s wound was self-inflicted or if the suspect was shot by police.
Authorities said emergency personnel received a call about the shooting at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street just after 9 a.m. and that units were on the scene within minutes. The FBI is also on the scene.
The circumstances of the shooting weren’t immediately clear. The conditions of the people shot also weren’t known.
At least one person was seen being taken away in a stretcher.
Anyone traveling in the area is advised to expect road closures and detours.
In 1997, a 69-year-old man opened fire on the observation deck of the iconic landmark, killing one person and wounding six before shooting himself in the head. The gunman, Ali Abu Kamal, was taken to the hospital, where he died more than five hours after self-inflicting the fatal wound.
Law enforcement officials believe the 1997 attack was pre-meditated.
It is not clear if Friday morning’s shooting was premeditated, nor was it known if the victims were targeted or shot at random.
Administrator says:
Update: from NYPD scanner:
U/D Manhattan: 5 Ave & West 34 St/Empire State Bldg Total of 7 people shot Perp DOA 1 in serious condition All others in stable condition.
Also, according to ABC, the shooting was apparently a result of a “workplace dispute”:
A workplace dispute that erupted in gunfire left as many as ten people have been injured, at least four of them shot, near the Empire State building in Midtown.
A fire department spokesman says it received a call about the shooting just after at 9 a.m. Friday and that emergency units were on the scene at Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street within minutes.
Breaking news that the 5th Avenue and 34th street area in New York has been closed after 5 people were shot outside of the Empire state victim, including the gunman. According to police scanner reports, the perpetrator has been shot by NYPD ans is is DOA on scene, with EMS assistance requested.
From Reuters:
Two people have been killed and at least eight others were wounded in a shooting outside of the Empire State Building in New York City on Friday, according to a New York police source.
One of the dead was the shooter, the source said, adding that there was no apparent link to terrorism.
From NBC New York:
Police say at least two people were shot outside the Empire State Building Friday morning.
Authorities said emergency personnel received a call about the shooting at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street just after 9 a.m.
The circumstances of the shooting weren’t immediately clear. The conditions of the people shot also weren’t known.
At least one person was seen being taken away in a stretcher.
And from Fox NY:
There are reports of multiple people shot outside the Empire State Building. FOX 5 News has learned that at least three people have been shot. The scene is chaotic as people make their way to work in the heavily trafficked area. One person is in police custody. FOX 5 News and SkyFoxHD are headed to the scene. MyFoxNY.com is updating this story.
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25th August 2012 at 10:34 am
FT says:
Bloomberg’s Army in action, supposedly “aiding” a man having a seizure, shooting and pepper spraying his dog (clearly just protecting its owner). Then these assholes leave both man and dog lying in the street, the dog wailing and suffering, for the next nine minutes until the tape ends.
Warning, you may not want to watch, it’s disgusting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Tx68uvOqug
Yeah, real courageous soldiers you got there Mayor. I’m still wondering why neither of these dicks went to aid the man it was so crucial to get to. Imagine, a gunshot attracted attention.
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25th August 2012 at 10:34 am
Thinker says:
FT, that was pretty disturbing. But something more people need to see. I like how all these videos feature women behind the camera screaming at the officers, asking why they need to be so brutal. No wonder the PTB feel the need to “control” the citizenry.
On the situation outside the Empire State Building, just about all media outlets are turning this into a “domestic terrorism” incident (started as a workplace dispute, but the shooter then targeted people on the street), talking about how Bloomberg wants to control guns (even though Obama and Romney don’t), blah blah blah. Disgusting.
Ultimately, it’s just one more example of someone snapping. We can expect to see many, many more of these as the 4T continues.
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25th August 2012 at 11:10 am
ecliptix543 says:
I long ago decided that any time a newly-minted ex employee goes back in to smoke the shithead manager/coworker/snitch, I’ll side with the shooter first. Millions of decent people get thrown to the curb over office politics and stupid, Mickey Mouse bullshit every year ruining lives, destroying families, tearing up communities. If it takes a string of fatal retaliatory strikes to get the point across to snotnose punk managers that value ass kissing more than real work, so be it. Blasting a bunch of random people in a theater is pretty fucked up, but taking out a couple of crooked assholes when they ruin your life… well, that I can understand.
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25th August 2012 at 11:27 am
platoplubius says:
I was watching some of the police press conference right now about this “disgruntled” former employee of 53 years of age who was fired yesterday from his job.
The police commissioner mentioned that poilce officers returned fire on this guy after he shot his boss near Legend’s Bar while he was walking down the street. I wonder how many innocent bystanders were hit by police bullets? Will the public ever know or will the fraternal order of the police brotherhood cover that shit up too?!!
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25th August 2012 at 11:36 am
AWD says:
The shooter was high on Coke, not the kind you snort, the kind you drink. He snuck it in from New Jersey, and when a cop tried to bust him, he pulled out a weapon from one of his fat folds. He was fired because he tried to drink a 64oz Coke on the job.
Mikey says: “guns are okay, but Coke is deadly”
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25th August 2012 at 12:22 pm
IndenturedServant says:
Drudge has a link to a Bloomberg story that cops did indeed shoot several bystanders in this incident. I hope the victims sue the fucking NYPD into non-existence! It would have been great if the cops had been caught in each others crossfire though!
Generally I don’t have a big beef with cops but shooting multiple civilians while trying to get one bad guy? Fuck! You’ve got to be kidding me!
I_S
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25th August 2012 at 12:56 pm
Administrator says:
THANK GOD FOR THE NYPD. WITHOUT THEM WE’D ONLY HAVE TWO SHOOTING VICTIMS.
NEW YORK — A laid-off women’s accessories designer shot a former coworker to death in front of the Empire State Building, causing a chaotic showdown with police Friday in front of one of the world’s best-known landmarks. Police killed the suspect and at least nine others were wounded, some possibly by police gunfire, city officials said.
Some of the wounded were grazed by bullets and others hit directly, but all were expected to survive, officials said.
The gunshots rang out on the Fifth Avenue side of the building at around 9 a.m., a time of day when the sidewalks around the building are packed with pedestrians and merchants were opening their shops.
“People were yelling `Get down! Get down!”, said Marc Engel, an accountant who was on a bus in the area when he heard the shots. “It took about 15 seconds, a lot of `pop, pop, pop, pop, one shot after the other.”
Afterward, he saw the sidewalks littered with the wounded, including one person “dripping enough blood to leave a stream.”
After the shootout, crowds of tourists and people on their way to work gathered along 34th Street, which was shut down by police. Police helicopters buzzed overhead and swarms of officers were gathered around the crime scene.
Jeffrey Johnson, 58, was laid off about a year ago at Hazan Imports and fired three times at the company’s 41-year-old office manager, shooting the man in the head, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. The two had traded accusations of harassment when Johnson worked there, he said.
Johnson walked away, and a construction worker who saw the shooting followed Johnson and alerted police, officials said. 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.
Kelly initially said that Johnson fired on officers, but police said later they were trying to determine whether Johnson actually fired shots.
The two officers fired a total of 14 rounds, he 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.
Johnson worked at the company near the building for about six years and was laid off because of downsizing, Kelly said.
“We were just working here and we just heard bang, bang, bang!” said Mohammed Bachchu, 22, of Queens, a worker at a nearby souvenir shop. He said he rushed from the building and saw seven people lying on the ground, covered in blood.
Queens resident Rebecca Fox, 27, said she saw people running down the street and initially thought it was a celebrity sighting, but then saw a woman shot in the foot and a man dead on the ground.
“I was scared and shocked and literally shaking,” she said. She said police seemed to appear in seconds. “It was like CSI, but it was real.”
Hassam Cissa, 22, of the Bronx, said he saw two bodies on the ground and police applying a white cloth to a man’s stomach wound.
Gunshots so close to one of the city’s leading tourist attractions immediately prompted fears of terrorism, but federal officials said that wasn’t the case, and a guard at skyscraper said it didn’t involve the parts of the building where tourists gather to visit the skyscraper.
The gunfire came less than two weeks after a knife-wielding man was shot dead by police near Times Square, another tourist-saturated part of the city. Authorities say police shot 51-year-old Darrius Kennedy after he lunged at officers with a kitchen knife Aug. 12. Kennedy was smoking marijuana in Times Square on a Saturday afternoon when officers first approached, police said. It was the beginning of an encounter that would stretch for seven crowded blocks.
In 1997, a gunman opened fire on the 86th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building, killing one tourist and wounding six others before fatally shooting himself.
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25th August 2012 at 1:07 pm
FBD says:
Can’t wait to see the Law&Order episode …….. where the shooter no doubt will be a crazed white Christian fundamentalist and the police heros for shooting two civilians who were really disenfranchised Ron Paul voters with guns.
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25th August 2012 at 1:27 pm
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
Gee, I can’t wait until the family members and patients start going postal when their care gets denied by the Medicare Death Panels!
This guy is just one in a long line of people who are on the brink and it won’t take much to explode as the collapse accelerates. Kinda like the country.
Today I got on my desk an offer from one of our hospitals which is going to sponsor a FREE concealed permit course, I shit you not, for the physicians.
Just one more argument to be heavily armed at all times.
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25th August 2012 at 2:51 pm
Bullock says:
I was out in the sticks (close to the Everglades) at my friends ranch. A bunch of us meet out there on some Fridays and shoot at some targets and just shoot the shit. There is some serious fire power there some Fridays. One guys ear protection is a radio also and he stopped us all and told us about this story. We all looked at each other and just laughed and started shooting again.
My new AR 15 shoots real nice, not sure if I really need to do many modifications to it. Put about 700 rounds through it, she is ready for combat. They have to be my favorite rifle to shoot, get all the right parts in it that fit your shooting style and you can actually amaze people sometimes.
But the 50cal Browning is still my number one favorite shooter. It sends out a message.
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25th August 2012 at 4:12 pm
DaveL says:
According to eyewitnesses, the shooter was advised of his right to remain silent just before being hit by 37 bullets, ensuring that his right would be protected.
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25th August 2012 at 8:51 pm
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
@Bullock: I LOVE my AR15, I have a Bushmaster with the collapsable stock and a nice scope on it. It is lightweight, very hardy and a great varmint gun, okay, it’s a bit of overkill but so smooth and easy to shoot that I have it hanging off the back of the Polaris ranger when I’m out and about the doomstead.
I am thinking of a small gun to wear on a boot holster under my pants (no, I do NOT wear dresses and panyhose, lol) when I am in the hospital these days.
Sign of the times, sign of the times.
Gee, I wonder if Bloomberg bodyguards are armed, ya think???
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25th August 2012 at 9:40 pm
No Field Five says:
@HZK – My hospital has a “no firearms” sign posted at the physician’s entrances. When I started carrying regularly, the chief of security suggested that I should leave my pistol in the car. After some arm twisting (patients who are hospital administrators), he agreed to secure it for me in a lock box in the hospital police office. After about a year, he finally told me not to worry about it anymore. I don’t think that I conceal particularly well, but nobody ever asks what is under my sportcoat.
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25th August 2012 at 10:24 pm
harry p. says:
I just read that almost every person hurt in the shooting were hit by the cops, WTF???
How is that fuckwad Fuhrer Bloomberg going to spin this one after this display of complete incompetency by NYC’s finest?
The cops are not there to protect you, they are law enforcers and are there to enforce the laws dictated to them by our masters. They will shoot blindly to protect themselves even if it risks killing innocent people.
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25th August 2012 at 12:59 pm
Administrator says:
The story of Bloomberg’s NYPD
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25th August 2012 at 1:11 pm
Mary Malone says:
Yesterday morning, in Manhattan, Mr. Malone was on the subway and an NYPD cop gets on his car with his German Shepard. Mr. Malone starts to talk to the dog, and says, “Hey guy, how ya do’in?”
The cop, who is wound so tight his neck is about to explode admonishes Mr. Malone and says, “Don’t talk to the dog.”
Mr. Malone, a dog lover, says, “What the hell’s your problem pal? I’m not doing anything wrong. Lighten up, will ya?”
This occurred about 8 a.m, before the shooting started in front of the Empire State Building.
The NYPD has been out in force for weeks, flooding Grand Central and Penn Stations and all major thoroughfares throughout NYC. They are uptight, armed to the teeth and everywhere.
Not a good place to be.
And to add a bit of paranoia to the mix, we are bombarded with public service messages telling NYer’s to prepare for an emergency.
It’s all very creepy and sinister. Good things are definitely not in store.
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25th August 2012 at 1:17 pm
SAH says:
“Jeffrey Johnson, 58, was laid off about a year ago at Hazan Imports and fired three times at the company’s 41-year-old office manager, shooting the man in the head”.
This isnt about guns at all – its just another example of the Baby Boomer generational warfare against Gen X. I’m sure he would have shot a Millennial as well, if any of those poor kids could find a workplace besides the military (where Boomers can outsource their attacks on the youth by letting the Taliban do the shooting for them). Boomers won’t exit ‘the system’ even when they DESERVE to get fired, and they won’t go out without a real and bloody generational war against everyone younger than them.
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25th August 2012 at 1:42 pm
Administrator says:
Mary
The NYPD is out in force and did they stop the crime? Not only did they not stop the crime, they shot 8 innocent bystanders. New York’s finest.
I think the solution is more cops. Don’t you agree?
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25th August 2012 at 1:49 pm
Administrator says:
NYPD Practicing for a real shootout.
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25th August 2012 at 1:51 pm
Administrator says:
My advice for the NYPD
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25th August 2012 at 1:55 pm
Administrator says:
Someone should buy Bloomberg this t-shirt
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25th August 2012 at 1:59 pm
printmemoney says:
The rules of engagement that these officers used are much more liberal than the troops had in the last few years of the Iraq occupation.
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25th August 2012 at 2:46 pm
Mayor Bloomberg says:
Those nine people should have ducked.
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25th August 2012 at 4:25 pm
Alpha Squad says:
NYC is a shithole.
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25th August 2012 at 4:38 pm
Mary Malone says:
You know Admin, I almost long for the days when NY was a more dangerous place. At least the criminals weren’t shooting innocent bystanders. They were just killing each other.
Now, we have NYPD cops in riot gear swarming all over the city. They are a hair-trigger away from blasting an innocent person to smithereens.
If anyone is interested in looking into the future to see what life will be like as the noose tightens, wander into Nueva York.
Wear a bullet proof vest and leave your gun at home though. The NYPD is on the loose….
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25th August 2012 at 9:55 pm