NYPD needs more training
After shooting 9 people in a mass shooting that involved mostly NYPD guns, they’ve shot someone else.
Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
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September 10th, 2012 at 2:24 pm
After looking at the video, I can’t fault either the officer or his training. The final camera angle (starting at about 0:55) shows it best. He’s splitting his attention between the door that he’s standing next to and something down the street (another exit from the store?), and is caught completely by surprise by the first victim running out of the door and almost directly at him. He appears to almost shoot the first guy, but restrains himself. He was still covering him, and it looks like he may have been reaching for his cuffs to restrain him, when the second guy runs into him.
From the time the first robbery victim runs out to the time the second one runs into the cop is less than 2 seconds. I doubt the cop had enough time to transition from “I’m under attack” to “no-shoot” to “finger off trigger”, and I suspect he hadn’t even solidified his identification of the first person as a victim rather than a suspect, before he was hit. At that point it was either his monkey-grip reflex or the way he was hit that caused him to pull the trigger.
It’s also possible that being physically struck while covering a possible armed robbery suspect prompted a conscious decision to shoot someone he thought was attacking him.
Given their history, I hate to give NYPD any slack, but I can’t fault the officer or his training for this one, and the fact that he didn’t shoot the first victim actually speaks well of his restraint and his training. I think it was just a horrific confluence of events that could only have been avoided by the officer not getting involved – but getting involved in things like armed robbery is his job.