{"id":2397,"date":"2012-08-26T18:06:19","date_gmt":"2012-08-26T22:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/?p=2397"},"modified":"2012-08-26T18:35:49","modified_gmt":"2012-08-26T22:35:49","slug":"nypd-officers-forced-into-difficult-shooting-scenario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/?p=2397","title":{"rendered":"NYPD Officers Forced Into Difficult Shooting Scenario"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EYWgrHwrlf8?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>My headline was not the one I read on a mainstream media news website.\u00a0 It said something like, &#8220;NYPD Shoots Nine Bystanders Before Killing Suspect.&#8221;\u00a0 Considering\u00a0 that in a crowd of people, the two officers shot sixteen bullets and hit a gun-wielding homicide suspect nine times at center of mass, I&#8217;d say my headline is closer to reality.<\/p>\n<p>The suspect, Jeffrey Johnson, is seen at the top center of the video walking toward the left and carrying a briefcase.\u00a0 Officers Craig Matthews and Robert Sinishtaj enter from the top right.\u00a0 Johnson was walking from the scene where he had just shot a co-worker five times in the head with a .45 ACP pistol, killing him.\u00a0 A construction worker pointed out the gunman to the officers.<\/p>\n<p>Because there were over a dozen innocent citizens at close proximity on the sidewalk, the two officers were presented with a difficult lethal force scenario outside the Empire State building on Friday.\u00a0 The suspect provoked a response when he plainly points his handgun at the officers.\u00a0 In turn, they eliminate him as a threat.<\/p>\n<p>Of the nine bystanders hurt, three suffered &#8220;direct&#8221; gunshot wounds and the remaining six had &#8220;indirect&#8221; injuries either from bullet or concrete fragments, according to New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.\u00a0 None of the citizens suffered life threatening<!--more--> injuries, though two remained hospitalized at Bellevue.<\/p>\n<p>I agree with Commissioner Kelly&#8217;s statement that the officers, both fifteen year veterans of the NYPD, had no choice but to fire.\u00a0 The suspect had just shot his victim six times.\u00a0 The officers were in very close proximity with a murder suspect who drew his handgun and pointed it at them.<\/p>\n<p>No officer wants to inflict injury to an innocent citizen.\u00a0 It is part of our job that we do not engineer the shoot\/don&#8217;t shoot scenario.\u00a0 The suspect does.\u00a0 Our actions are reactive, timed and placed by the decisions made by the offender.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m sure these officers will be vilified in the media and in civil court.\u00a0 That, too, is unfortunately part of our job.\u00a0 Under incredibly difficult circumstances, I think that Ofc&#8217;s Matthews and Sinishtaj performed their sworn duty, went into harm&#8217;s way, and neutralized a killer.\u00a0 There&#8217;s the headline.<\/p>\n<p>Randall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My headline was not the one I read on a mainstream media news website.\u00a0 It said something like, &#8220;NYPD Shoots Nine Bystanders Before Killing Suspect.&#8221;\u00a0 Considering\u00a0 that in a crowd of people, the two officers shot sixteen bullets and hit a gun-wielding homicide suspect nine times at center of mass, I&#8217;d say my headline is closer to reality. The suspect, Jeffrey Johnson, is seen at the top center of the video walking toward the left and carrying a briefcase.\u00a0 Officers Craig Matthews and Robert Sinishtaj enter from the top right.\u00a0 Johnson was walking from the scene where he had just shot a co-worker five times in the head with a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/?p=2397\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[407,4,10],"tags":[469,468,467],"class_list":["post-2397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-officer-safety","category-street","tag-bystanders-hit-by-police-bullets","tag-jeffrey-johnson","tag-nypd-shooting"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p28xkp-CF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2397"}],"version-history":[{"count":46,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2443,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2397\/revisions\/2443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}