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Cops Shoot and Kill Knife Weilding Maniac in Times Square – One Down, Many, Many More to Go
When the tourists and shoppers thronging Times Square on Saturday afternoon first saw the police officers, guns drawn, confronting a knife-wielding man, many thought they had stumbled onto a movie set.
As the man fled, weaving through crowds and darting between cars, he threatened bystanders, witnesses said. The police gave chase, eventually cornering him near 37th Street and Seventh Avenue and killing him in a fusillade of bullets after, police officials said, he ignored orders to drop his weapon and lunged at officers.
Paul J. Browne, the chief police spokesman, said officers used pepper spray six times to try to halt the man, who repeatedly threatened officers with a kitchen knife with a six-inch blade.
“He continued to advance on uniformed officers, refusing officers’ repeated commands to drop his weapon,” Mr. Browne said. “Two officers discharged their weapons at close quarters on Seventh Avenue between 37th and 38th Streets.”
The police did not immediately identify the 51-year-old man, who was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital Center.
“He was swinging at people as he ran,” said Jobby Nogver, 17, visiting from Boston. Mr. Nogver watched as about a dozen police officers finally surrounded the man and shots were fired. “I can’t tell you how many shots,” he said. “It was a lot.”
Wanna see some idiotic NY Slimes reader’s comments?
- Iggy
Was shooting the guy in the leg an option? Why did they have to kill him? I am not justifying the behavior of this perturbed person but having to kill somebody because of this seems a very extreme measure.
- Debbie Carter
A senseless crime by NYPD.
- Syzygies
So one is allowed to use tranquilizer darts with animals, but our only option is to kill humans?
- Les
If marijuana smoking were legal, no one whold have died.
- todd
shooting? just throw a fish net on the guy or shoot him in the legs.
- The UK does it better
- Bruno Chalifour
Why kill?
This is sick and seems to cast a clear light on tis culture and how badly trained and “armed” NYPD (and others seem to be). Human life is less valuable than animals that are sedated when dangerous.
The easier solution would have been to shoot him in the leg, foot, definitely knee and deprive him of locomotion in order to control him (he only had a knife in front of (supposedly) trained gunS). Or were the officers or their superiors (who must have given orders) fearing a law-suit if the guy had been incapacitated.
This is just SICK!
- Snip
Isn’t there someone out there bright enough to invent a light metal net which could be aimed at a target and quickly catch it? A net which you couldn’t slash your way out of? Or could police learn to use a lasso?
- an
But they also have an obligation to protect the citizenry from themselves. This is where they always fall down.
Lisl
August 12th, 2012
And yet NYC still refuses to allow citizens to own guns except under extremely draconian rules. Geniuses.
Xavier
August 12th, 2012
Nanny’s going to have all the knives registered tomorrow.
Left Coast Dan
August 12th, 2012
Oh hai, I’m sitting in my armchair munching on a moon pie and don’t know any details surrounding this, but cops are evil and we need more government so they can take care of us. And gun control. Yeah.
Annie
August 12th, 2012
Please note how close the criminal is to the officers of the law.
Nutjob
August 12th, 2012
Good thing Bloomburg wants to ban supersized soft drinks and fastfood, who knows what this guy could’ve done.
Xavier
August 12th, 2012
Dude’s non-white so that means we’ll be seeing Big Al and Rev. Jesse’s traveling racial incitement show.
Unneutral
August 12th, 2012
Suicide by cop, it saves a lot of taxpayer money.
Maudie N Mandeville
August 12th, 2012
Couldn’t they have blown cigarette smoke on him or doused him with a 32 oz soft drink?
Roscoe P. Soultrane
August 12th, 2012
Given the crowds in the background and NYPD’s notoriously less-than-stellar accuracy (read RAND Corp.’s study on it), tasers or beanbag rounds probably would have been the safest option, but you have to go with what you’ve got on hand, I suppose.
Sjamboks would be *very* useful in a situation like that, but I suppose the ACLU would protest.
Friend of the family
August 12th, 2012
I wonder if any of these people have ever cut themselves with a typical table knife while doing dishes or trying to fix something. I have. Several times through the years. The worst was six stitches on one of my fingers. And I’m always amazed how fast and clean those cuts came into being. Lighting fast. Look again at the knife the dude was swinging around. How long to cut a throat with that blade? A second, or two? Or long enough to stab clear through someone’s heart? I suspect they assume that it was ONLY a knife, so he wasn’t so threatening. Just as deadly as a gun people. Dumb asses.
Plain Jane
August 12th, 2012
Yea brilliant people. Shoot at a man’s hand while he is swinging his arms, especially when he’s surrounded by cops. Guess the citizenry think it would be fine for the bullet to go through the crazy guy’s hand and stop in the chest of a cop.
norman einstein
August 12th, 2012
The comments are staggering…how do they get this stoopid???
“Isn’t there someone out there bright enough to invent a light metal net which could be aimed at a target and quickly catch it? A net which you couldn’t slash your way out of? Or could police learn to use a lasso?”
Yeah…we got your light metal net right here.
You may not like the ‘delivery system’, however.
Katechon
August 12th, 2012
That black guy on the picture was 51 y/o?
Wow.
Moe Tom
August 12th, 2012
One guy had a good idea: use a lasso to bring him down. Other than that I’m glad no pain-in-the-ass innocent by-standers were injured. Lasso? friggin’idiot.
eternal cracker p
August 12th, 2012
Cops got him, but I bet he used to skate TSA harassment.
Frosteetoes
August 12th, 2012
They could have subdued him with clowns and street performers. While he was distracted the cops could have snuck up on him and tickled him until he dropped his knife. What the hell were those cops thinking?
Maudie N Mandeville
August 12th, 2012
“There are no deaths from cannabis use. Anywhere. You can’t find one,” said Dr. Lester Grinspoon, professor emeritus at Harvard Medical School.
“Dammit! OK, so now there’s one.”
MaryfromMarin
August 12th, 2012
“Could police learn to use a lasso?”
And then do what? Brand him?
jwm
August 12th, 2012
Cannabis?
Maybe bath salts.
I say round up all the peace-nik commenters and have them become the mellow force non violent tactical team. The cops can call on them every time a lunatic starts going crazy with a weapon.
JWM
Tracy
August 12th, 2012
MELLOW OUT MAN!
-Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop Bop–Bop
NObama2012!
Xavier
August 12th, 2012
The New York police acted stupidly – Teh Won
Jethro
August 12th, 2012
It happened in front of Bubba Gump’s Seafood.
…I like shrimp.
Anyway, like I was sayin’, shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey’s uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There’s pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that’s about it.
cfm990
August 12th, 2012
Help me out here people. Who was the famous American that said “They bring a knife, we bring a gun”?
Xavier
August 12th, 2012
The new surveillance cameras going up everywhere in NYC would have stopped this.
Hotlanta Mike
August 12th, 2012
A distraught Obama voter after Romney announces Paul Ryan as his running mate…
norman einstein
August 12th, 2012
@Jethro, damn…you’re making me hungry for some.
I like mine sautéed in butter and garlic with a splash of white wine. And some wild rice on the side.
Delish!
Stranded in Sonoma
August 12th, 2012
The police are taught to go for the biggest target; i.e., the torso. I’ll bet that RAND study showed poor marksmenship because they were going for the legs or arms or hands per the PC rules of engagement.
And if he’s high on something (and the police don’t know what that might be), shooting him in the leg or arm might just piss him off enough and then we’d have a dead police officer, too.
I’m going with @Unneutral on this one — suicide by cop.
Anonymous
August 12th, 2012
The comments are staggering…how do they get this stoopid???
I’m thinking “public education.”
olpicker
August 12th, 2012
If the cops had offered him a hug everything would have been alright.
Tracy
August 12th, 2012
@ccfmThat’s the Chicago way for sure.
“They bring a knife, we bring a gun”.
-Barack Hussein Obama mmmm mmmm mmmm.
Will Profit
August 12th, 2012
It’s easy for the New York Slimes commenters to play hero from the safety of mommy and daddy’s basement.
Jim
August 12th, 2012
It’s Bush’s fault!
Three Rivers
August 12th, 2012
Shoot him in the leg? Are you kidding me? Center mass every time.
Katechon
August 12th, 2012
Off topic
“… I am a belligerent, crazy-eyed spiritual hermaphrodite and that’s just how I roll.”
http://barnhardt.biz/
Roscoe P. Soultrane
August 12th, 2012
Just a random thought: do you think workers at the NYC morgue ever call the police and hit ‘em with Tarantino’s quote from Pulp Fiction about dead n-word storage? ‘Cause that would be a quality prank phone call…
Hey Timmy
August 12th, 2012
Couldn’t one of the street mimes just put him in a box?
Maybe we distract him with a picture of Mooseshell and Michael Moore at a stand up buffet. Scary.
IDF Sharpshooters
August 12th, 2012
Don’t be so meshuggah! A .22 in the kishkes does a fine job of taking the wind out of people’s sails.
Dano
August 12th, 2012
Well, that’s one less vote for Nobama…
mickey_moussaoui
August 12th, 2012
good. one less obama voter. I want to buy those cops a drink
Buffalobob
August 12th, 2012
Actually the NYCP didn’t have to do anything. The MSNYCPD (Microsoft New York City Police Dept). could have just watched their Bloomberg Nanny cams and followed the nitwit home or into an alley and gang jump him while he slept.
Xavier
August 12th, 2012
Don’t you think everybody should be fitted with some type of shock device that could be activated by the police in situations like this? Giving up a little freedom now could save a lot of lives in the long run, and we could pass laws to ensure this power wasn’t abused.
serfer62
August 12th, 2012
He’s just become a voting-Kommiecrat-forever voter
Birdie Num Num
August 12th, 2012
I mean, the police are like mean and stuff and they should be trained to think things through when they are dealing with advantage challenged persons and think about shooting the end off of the knife with a tranquilizer dart so no one’s feelings are hurt and everyone can coexist and stuff.
Peace out.
rduke305
August 12th, 2012
Yeah…like this guy is coming at me with a large knife…do I use my taser on the chance that it might malfunction, or do I use an easier, softer way? I’ll go with the easier, softer way…namely my 10mm.
mkultra
August 12th, 2012
Couldn’t those cops have just called in an airstrike? Then bulldozed the gubmint project this piece-of-shi7 crawled out from under? Then deported all of his blood relations?
That would’ve been the most humane thing to do.
mkultra
August 12th, 2012
Idea: announce that NYPD will institute a new policy to help save the lives of depraved criminals. From now on the cops will NOT shoot to kill. They will only aim for your jimmy.
Even the crazy ones will line up to surrender.
66chevelle
August 12th, 2012
@ Katechon “That black guy on the picture was 51 y/o?
Wow.”
I know, right? No chance of skittling that one, Al…oops, I mean skilleting that one…we much.
And “Jobby Nogver”? He had to be punking the reporters with that name.
Tracy
August 12th, 2012
If In The NYPD Academy Taught The Rules Of Tag.
TAG! YOU’RE IT! NAH! It’s Better & Safer To Do It The Tourist Way…POINT & SHOOT…Better Picture Too!
NObama 2012!
scr_north
August 12th, 2012
I’m continually amazed on just how stupid TV has made some people. You hear about jurors aquitting some crook because there was no DNA or microscopic evidence uncovered by the CSI crew (CSI, CSI Miami, CSI New York, Law and Order etc), the people complaining about some lowlife shot and killed instead of being wounded in the leg (just about every TV cop show has this as a staple and if you’ve ever shot a handgun you know it’s BS) or using a Taser (rarely is this used when the crook is armed and ready to use deadly force) and doctors coming up with the most arcane diagnosis and saving the patient (House et al).
Now I enjoy a good TV show as much as the next guy but I like to think I can separate Hollywood BS from reality however it’s all to evident that many people can’t.
IOpian
August 13th, 2012
Why not just nuke him from orbit… it’s the only way to be sure.
Lisl
August 13th, 2012
Imagine what it would look like if the police had been on strike, per Bloomie’s recommendation, to protest gun laws.
Yes, guns bad. knives harmless.
Eejits.
Lisl
August 13th, 2012
*I mean to protest “lax” gun laws.*
Xavier
August 13th, 2012
Knives aren’t really that dangerous.
http://www.darkgovernment.com/news/knife-can-freeze-organs/
jbee
August 13th, 2012
Great job guys !!!! Please , Keep up the good work!
Pay no mind to the assholes that bad mouth you.
Thanks again !!!
House of Kell
August 13th, 2012
LMAO….people of a certain ‘ethnic group’ often times get pissy when told the free ride is ended! Guess being shot can be better than getting up at 4 every morning to find a fucking job, right?
Anonymous
August 13th, 2012
Here’s the 411 on Mr. Unidentified.
“Kennedy, who lived in Hempstead, N.Y., and was a native of South Carolina, had been arrested 10 times, including seven for marijuana possession, police said. In 2008, he was taken to a hospital for observation after knocking down garbage cans in Times Square.”
-Trailer Park Times
JustAl
August 13th, 2012
After reading of the left’s preparation for a civil war in 2016 on Drudge, I find the NYT commenters’ responses very, very reassuring.
muddjuice
August 13th, 2012
Police do not shoot to injure. Police do not shoot to kill. Police shoot to neutralize the threat. The best place to shoot is center mass (chest) as there is less chance of missing the target.
There is no, nor should there ever be, any training on how to shoot at legs or arms. If that is the only thing visible then so be it.
Also, a knife in the hands of someone who knows how to use it is just as deadly as a gun and it can do greater damage in a few swipes.
The only effective way to deal with a knife wielding person is to shoot them center mass and end the threat…..
Snowball the Sourpuss
August 13th, 2012
I think those morons watched waaay to much Batman when they were
kids, erchildren, noyounger…in there lives.big cat
August 13th, 2012
“Kennedy, who lived in Hempstead, N.Y.,
huh, shoulda went with his cuz’ Ambien defense – and a public paid attorney
kevin in troy
August 13th, 2012
where are the drones… send in the drones… don’t bother
Virg
August 13th, 2012
Kevin Cosner said it all in “Open Range”….KILL EM ALL!….Hooray for the NYPD good job….l less sleeze bag for the Occupy Wall Street Movement