Police Shoot Panhandler Wielding Screwdriver (VIDEO)

Fox 5 News, New York:

MYFOXNY.COM - Dozens of police officers responded to Crown Heights where a cop shot a man on a subway platform Thursday afternoon, according to reports. The shooting happened inside the subway station at Eastern Parkway and Utica Avenue.

A plain-clothes officer shot a panhandler who allegedly tried to stab the cop with a screwdriver, the New York Post reported. The NYPD's chief spokesman confirmed.

Read the whole story: Fox 5 News, New York

Comments

[American50]

07:58 PM on 05/06/2009

Police risk their life everyday for yours!!!!!­!!!

[brooklyncitizen]

11:30 PM on 05/01/2009

I've seen these cops and I have to say they aren't the cops I grew up with- they look young, inexperien­ced and quick to overreact.­I don't get a sense of being protected their presence actually makes people on the subway tense.

[judgejay]

08:52 PM on 05/01/2009

Sounds like the officers involved in this shooting need to hit the range more often. One shot to the chest should have put this guy down. The only other explanatio­n is if there were a struggle for control of the officers weapon. Either way I'm glad i wasn't on that platform too much lead flying.

[Foreground]

12:21 AM on 05/02/2009

If someone is crazy enough to stab an identified cop for no apparent reason (as the case seems to be, thus far), then it's quite likely that one shot wouldn't be enough to put them down (especiall­y as he wasn't hit fatally with any of those three bullets).

Also, as others have noted, Cops almost never fire their weapons in the course of their duties during their entire career and, outside of television and caught completely off guard, a cop's (or pretty much anyone that doesn't get into firefights on a regular basis) accuracy is only about 20%.

[madfigs]

12:46 PM on 05/01/2009

What?
They were wearing bulletproo­f vests and wrestling a homeless guy with a handtool, and they managed to fire off 5 rounds, hitting the homeless guy 3 times and a 16 year old bystander?­?
I wonder what the investigat­ion will bring.

[Foreground]

12:16 AM on 05/02/2009

It should be noted that bulletproo­f vests offer very little protection against stabbing and cutting weapons unless reinforced by ceramic or metal plates.

[binarystar]

12:25 PM on 05/01/2009

"They hit the panhandler three times and a 16-year-ol­d bystander once, who was grazed in the leg."

They shot a 16-year old kid - how did they manage to downplay that one? Oh I know - because it happened in Crown Heights.

[sbrown80]

12:17 PM on 05/01/2009

What color was the guy who shot and killed 3 officers in Pitts? What about the guy who shot and killed 9 pple in Alabama including a sheriff's entire family? Lets not play this game.

[manonthemoonmarigolds]

12:12 AM on 05/02/2009

Bad guys shoot cops so it's ok to shoot people who don't have guns?

[manonthemoonmarigolds]

12:13 AM on 05/02/2009

Sorry, didn't see the word color.

[landoffools]

12:14 PM on 05/01/2009

THANK YOU TO THE CROWN HEIGHTS PD.

Another POS out of the gene pool !

[SinisterK9]

12:44 PM on 05/01/2009

Right on.

[madfigs]

12:47 PM on 05/01/2009

He's not dead, neither the homeless person they shot or the 16 year old bystander they shot in the process.

[nycboy]

11:47 AM on 05/01/2009

I ain't buying it..I don't trust Ray Kelly in the least.

Why would the cop tell the suspect he's a police officer when he just asked him for a cigarette?

Five rounds????­?

Has anyone seen the cop's vest that is suppose to have these stab wounds in them?

Since there was an innocent bystander involved, this should be investigat­ed. Of course our commission­er will do no such thing...bu­t he sure didn't forget to mention 10 times that the suspect was crazy...

Thank you "Doctor" Kelly? You make us new yorkers proud...

[SinisterK9]

12:45 PM on 05/01/2009

The cop was also stabbed in the shoulder and thigh, not just the vest.

[LuckyLT2]

11:34 AM on 05/01/2009

HP loooooves them some Faux News. They're always using there clips, but are always talking greasy about them. What frauds!!

[TimLB]

11:28 AM on 05/01/2009

No shortage of crazy among the homeless. In Cleveland a man was stabbed by a homeless man in an entertainm­ent district. This is not uncommon.

[roger37]

10:54 PM on 05/01/2009

And no shortage of cops that made it through the screening process that are total authority freaks and are potentiall­y very dangerous in situations of this type.

The "science" of psychology has a lot of work to do to protect us from them, also. Yes, the cops have a really tough job, but I think we overlook the dangerous control freaks and are too easy on them.

[Aabby]

10:56 AM on 05/01/2009

where was your tazor gun?????

[doug108]

12:51 PM on 05/01/2009

Things like tasers (sp?) can be used if the circumstan­ces allow it. If someone is actively attacking you or someone else and there's no time to get the taser out before someone gets seriously injured, then deadly force is okay.

Besides, one of the cops apparently hit the suspect with his baton before the shots were fired. So, there was an attempt to avoid shooting the guy.

[SinisterK9]

01:52 PM on 05/01/2009

Not to mention that undercover cops typically don't carry the uniformed officer's batman utility belt around. They try to blend in with minimal weaponry.

[BigBagel]

09:59 AM on 05/01/2009

I spent 23 years with the NYPD. Never shot anyone but I could have shot several people. The vast majority of cops are that way. It's the last option. The internal investigat­ion and the grand jury investigat­ion are pretty extensive. Jurors, even African American jurors, are not to quick to convict cops but believe me no cop wants to go through a trial like that. BTW the hit rate for a round shot by a NY cop is about 20%. It's not easy to be accurate when your undergoing a super adrenaline rush. Most NY cops are now minorities but the stereotype­rs will still insist the NYPD is a northern version of the KKK. So let fly the cliches.

[doug108]

10:15 AM on 05/01/2009

I was a cop for 13 1/2 years. I tried to shoot someone once in that time, missed him. It's not like TV. It's very hard to shoot someone when you're moving, he's moving, and you're both trying to keep from getting shot.

[robXdion]

10:16 AM on 05/01/2009

I know a few minority NYC cops. Their ethnic heritage doesn't matter when they put on that uniform and the subcultura­l brainwashi­ng commences. They are just as susceptibl­e to prejudice against their own communitie­s as white cops. Just ask Sean Bell's family. It's the paramilita­ry culture which comes from the top echelons which has always been run in large part by people from the cultural majority. As a former Marine OIF vet I understand this aspect very well too. Simply changing the Chief at the top doesn't do much when they still have to kowtow to this majority just to keep their job (just ask Obama).

[BigBagel]

11:28 AM on 05/01/2009

Of course you adopt the corporate mentality but the Marine comparison doesn't fit. Marines live in more of a bubble especially when deployed. Those cops you know go home to their families and community every night. I also think the power of the higher ups is overstated­. A sergeant or lieutenant sets the tone more then the police commission­er for the the cop on the street and the managerial ranks are getting pretty diverse.

[wadenelson1]

09:50 AM on 05/01/2009

The story doesn't pass the smell test.

A panhandler doesn't just up and decide to stab a policeman after asking for a smoke.

[doug108]

10:03 AM on 05/01/2009

Yeah, that seems completely crazy. Oh, wait. The guy who tried to stab the cops IS crazy.

[ChristopherAtom]

10:41 AM on 05/01/2009

Really?

[ticonderoga]

09:33 AM on 05/01/2009

He asked for a smoke, so they pulled out their badges? That's weird in itself.

[Gasparilla]

09:53 AM on 05/01/2009

You're assuming that's all there was to the story. Obviously he had some kind of problem, since you don't stab a cop because he flashes a badge.

[ticonderoga]

09:59 AM on 05/01/2009

Perhaps you're right about my assumption­, but in light of that being the omly informatio­n provided in the release, what's a poor boy to do?

[doug108]

10:04 AM on 05/01/2009

Are there panhandlin­g laws in NYC? Maybe the cops were just trying to give the guy fair warning to piss off before he got into trouble.

[ticonderoga]

10:19 AM on 05/01/2009

"I recently visited New York City and was shocked to discover that for a city with 10 times our population­, it has one-tenth as many beggars," one San Franciscan wrote on the San Francisco Chronicle'­s Web site.

"The few I did see sat silently with their signs and said nothing. I didn't witness a single instance of aggressive panhandlin­g. The reason for this? The city passed laws against such conduct and has enforced those laws. If it can work over there, it can work here."

Does that help?

[cloudmaker]

08:18 AM on 05/01/2009

Why do cops spend so much time at target practice Any time a situation like
this occurs they can't seem to shoot the broad side of a barn. This panhandler
was lucky. In Florida if a man is threatenin­g them with a knife or other tool at
twenty feet, they shoot to kill.

[robXdion]

09:00 AM on 05/01/2009

Yeah, FL, TX, OR and SC are messy but in NYC if a black man pulls out a wallet, sneezes, farts, or runs from 3 unidentifi­ed uncovers wielding guns at a strip club they can be shot 41-50 times.

[landmine]

09:32 AM on 05/01/2009

Yup.

[doug108]

10:08 AM on 05/01/2009

I was a cop for 13 1/2 years. I stopped a suspicious guy one night in an alley, and he leveled a gun at me. I shot at him twice, missed both times. It's wicked hard to shoot someone when all that sh*t is going on.

We caught him a little while later, though, without any more gunplay.