Shooting at the Empire State Building

[Parkbandit]

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City police say at least four people have been shot outside the Empire State Building and that the gunman is dead. A witness says the shooter was firing indiscriminately.
The shooting happened Friday morning at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue.
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 within minutes.
The department says paramedics are evaluating eight people but some of them may not have been shot.
Aliyah Imam tells Fox 5 News that she was standing at a red light when a woman standing next to her fell to the ground. She says the woman was hit in the hip. She says the gunman was "shooting indiscriminately at people."

http://news.yahoo.com/several-people-shot-outside-empire-state-building-133147539.html

I thought NYC had extremely strict gun laws... how could this possibly happen?

[AnticorRifling]

This makes no sense PB. How could he carry and use a firearm if it is a legal no no?!

[Tgo01]

The gunman is dead? Well no questions about it then, he shot himself, after all he had access to a firearm.

[Parkbandit]

This makes no sense PB. How could he carry and use a firearm if it is a legal no no?!

I can only think of one answer: Suicide.

[Rucca]

I guess the gunman stalked his coworker that he had issues with, shot him dead with a rifle or shotgun, then went over to the Empire State Building's entrance and opened fire randomly. Cops then killed him with one shot. Crazy. I feel horrible when things happen like this. I used to work in mid town and I can only imagine how everyone who was on their way to work must have felt.

Eeerily, just minutes before the mayhem, Mayor Bloomberg was warning about the dangers of “too many guns on the streets” on his weekly radio show.

“The argument guns don’t kill people, people kill people is one of the most disingenuous things you can say,” he said shortrly before 9 a.m. while discussing tougher guns laws being proposed in Albany.

“It does take a person to pull the trigger, but if they didn’t have the gun... We are the only developed country in the world with this problem.”

[AnticorRifling]

Stricter laws would have stopped this!

If this guy wanted to kill his coworker but didn't have a gun he would have talked his feelings out instead of using a car/knife/rat posion/sugery drinks!

Other developed countries don't have people that disobey the laws!

He's an idiot.

[Parkbandit]

Looks like if we just ban people getting fired, we wouldn't have these incidents. I bet it was a One Percenter that fired him.

I bet it's not a coincidence that "firing" is also a gun term.

[Suppressed Poet]

I hate the news... The world is in need of more living saints.

This country is going to hell in a hand basket...

[Back]

Stay classy guys, stay classy.

[AnticorRifling]

You're talking about the guys using a tragedy to push forward a law that won't stop future tragedy? I agree Back.

[Reliel]

Wait wait wait, people use tragedies to gain support? Since when?!

That's a terrible thing to do.

[Androidpk]

Someone must not have been paying attention to the surveillance cam feeds! This is why we need drones!

[AnticorRifling]

Agreed.

[4a6c1]

:-[

[jpatter123]

machetes! The U.S. would be a better place if all angry people carried machetes like they do in other countries. Guns don't kill people, machetes do!

[Tgo01]

“The argument guns don’t kill people, people kill people is one of the most disingenuous things you can say

“It does take a person to pull the trigger

So he calls it disingenuous then he goes on to agree that it takes a person to pull the trigger in order to kill someone?

Talk about disingenuous.

[Allereli]

LL Cool J didn't need a gun

[Tenlaar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsN0FCXw914

[zhelas]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_EMPIRE_STATE_BUILDING_SHOOTING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-24-11-49-15

....The two officers fired a total of 14 rounds at Johnson, Kelly said. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said some of the nine wounded may have been shot by police in the mayhem....

[Kastrel]

Is it strange that I read this topic title and my first thought was that some random people were taking pot-shots AT the Empire State Building?


Stricter laws would have stopped this!

If this guy wanted to kill his coworker but didn't have a gun he would have talked his feelings out instead of using a car/knife/rat posion/sugery drinks!

He's an idiot.

Dude, crossbows. Thats how I would have done it.

[SHAFT]

Sean was mentioning he was going to be fired. Do we have confirmation of his where abouts?

[magiceatsyou]

Stricter laws would have stopped this!

If this guy wanted to kill his coworker but didn't have a gun he would have talked his feelings out instead of using a car/knife/rat posion/sugery drinks!

Other developed countries don't have people that disobey the laws!

He's an idiot.

The word sociopath comes to mind...

[Latrinsorm]

Is it strange that I read this topic title and my first thought was that some random people were taking pot-shots AT the Empire State Building?I thought the same.
....The two officers fired a total of 14 rounds at Johnson, Kelly said. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said some of the nine wounded may have been shot by police in the mayhem....Maybe this is just me, but I think I would want to be a little more sure before throwing the police under the bus.

[jpatter123]

Maybe this is just me, but I think I would want to be a little more sure before throwing the police under the bus.

wouldn't be the first time. Like the story of a cop trying to shoot a snake out of a tree, missed and bullet came down on and killed a little boy fishing in a boat in the lake behind the house.

[Jace Solo]

I love this thread.
We should make it about how cops are bad at everything and shouldn't carry guns because guns don't kill people, cops do.
NO COPS!

[Reliel]

We need people who are paid to protect people and can use force if necessary. But they won't be cops. Because cops are just brutal dictators who beat brown people.

[magiceatsyou]

I'm going to the Police Academy this January... Can I be the exception? SUPAR AWESOME FUTURE-COP RIGHT HERE. I promise not to bludgeon to many people...

[WRoss]

I guess the gunman stalked his coworker that he had issues with, shot him dead with a rifle or shotgun, then went over to the Empire State Building's entrance and opened fire randomly. Cops then killed him with one shot. Crazy. I feel horrible when things happen like this. I used to work in mid town and I can only imagine how everyone who was on their way to work must have felt.

Eeerily, just minutes before the mayhem, Mayor Bloomberg was warning about the dangers of “too many guns on the streets” on his weekly radio show.

“The argument guns don’t kill people, people kill people is one of the most disingenuous things you can say,” he said shortrly before 9 a.m. while discussing tougher guns laws being proposed in Albany.

“It does take a person to pull the trigger, but if they didn’t have the gun... We are the only developed country in the world with this problem.”

I havent read the rest of the thread, but this is incorrect. He had a hand gun with 8 rounds, shot his coworker 5 times, then fled. Police spotted him, he drew, they fired 16 shots, he fired one. 8 people were injured and the gunman died. You do the math.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/25/nyregion/empire-state-building-shooting.html?_r=1

[TheEschaton]

Math says that that was one powerful bullet.

[Some Rogue]

Was the guy named Lee Harvey?

[Reliel]

Math says that that was one powerful bullet.

That bullet was fucking magical.

[TheEschaton]

P.S. I work in Harlem every day, never have had my life disrupted by a shooting. Take a day off and sit at home and suddenly there's a shooting 16 blocks away. At least i didn't have shit to do today.

[Latrinsorm]

I havent read the rest of the thread, but this is incorrect. He had a hand gun with 8 rounds, shot his coworker 5 times, then fled. Police spotted him, he drew, they fired 16 shots, he fired one. 8 people were injured and the gunman died. You do the math.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/25/nyregion/empire-state-building-shooting.html?_r=1I take back what I said about the mayor, assuming he also knew this.

[Rucca]

I havent read the rest of the thread, but this is incorrect. He had a hand gun with 8 rounds, shot his coworker 5 times, then fled. Police spotted him, he drew, they fired 16 shots, he fired one. 8 people were injured and the gunman died. You do the math.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/25/nyregion/empire-state-building-shooting.html?_r=1

This was what was reported right after the shooting happened. So of course they went on eye witness testimonies or anything else they could scrounge up before all of the facts were put out there. Chaos doesn't make for exactness.
Mr. Johnson was killed and nine bystanders were wounded, perhaps all by police bullets.
They are also saying now that the bystanders may have been wounded by bullet fragments and ricochets.

[Stanley Burrell]

I say we unleash the Wu-Tang Clan.

[Tgo01]

Cops should be armed with paintball guns, none of this would have happened if they were.

[Back]

P.S. I work in Harlem every day, never have had my life disrupted by a shooting. Take a day off and sit at home and suddenly there's a shooting 16 blocks away. At least i didn't have shit to do today.

Playing video games may have saved your life.

[WRoss]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/25/justice/new-york-empire-state-shooting/

Cops responsible for all wounded.

[Warriorbird]

Wow.