Last August, a man fatally shot a former co-worker outside a West 33rd Street office building, and then fled. Police pursued the shooter, Jeffery Johnson, opening fire when he aimed his gun at them on the busy streets around the Empire State Building. While they did kill him, cops also injured nine civilians who were hit by the police bullets' ricocheting fragments. One of those victims is now suing the NYPD, blaming the department for the cops' "grossly negligent" actions.
According to the Associated Press, Chenin Duclos, a 32-year-old doctoral student in North Carolina, filed the lawsuit in Manhattan's state Supreme Court. Her attorney, Amy Marion, said, "[The NYPD] consistently fail[s] to properly train employees and officers in the settings they will encounter," adding, police were "grossly negligent in not waiting to confront Johnson until he moved to a location where innocent bystanders were not present." In other words, cops should know better than to fire at a fleeing armed murder suspect in one of the busiest areas in the world. Here's video of the confrontation:
Surveillance footage of police officers shooting Midtown shooting suspect from Gothamist on Vimeo.
After the shooting, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne justified the shooting, explaining, "[The cops] were approaching this man with a gun, and he turns on them, and he is eight feet away, pointing a gun right at them." But that's not enough for Duclos, who is seeking unspecified damages after suffering a neck wound and a shattered femur. The AP also implies that Duclos is annoyed that Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station aren't closer:
If not for a detour through New York City, she said she may have never been shot. She explained she had arrived by train at Grand Central Terminal and was walking with a friend across town to Pennsylvania Station to catch another train to a family reunion in New Jersey when she was shot as she crossed Fifth Avenue and 34th Street.
"I started to hear what I thought were gunshots," she said. "Everything happened really quickly. People were starting to run, screaming and yelling." Moments later she felt what seemed like a punch to her left hip. "All of a sudden I was on the ground," she said. "I couldn't move my leg; I knew I was hit by something but it was really hard to connect with the idea it would be a bullet."
Duclos says that her injuries have slowed down her academic pursuits and she's still in physical therapy.
The NYC Law Department will be issuing a statement later and we'll update the post when we receive it. We've also requested a statement from the NYPD.
Update: NYC Corporation Counsel Michael A. Cardozo said, "These officers had to make split-second decisions in dealing with a life-threatening situation presented by an armed gunman who had just killed someone. The state's highest court has recognized that police officers' split-second decisions to use deadly force must be protected from this kind of second-guessing. To allow otherwise would have a chilling effect on the ability of our police to enforce the law and would put the lives of police officers and the public at risk. We will vigorously defend the officers."
