Patterico's Pontifications

8/24/2012

Several Shot at Empire State Building

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:52 am



Ed Morrissey says:

A man described provisionally as a “disgruntled employee” killed one other person at the Empire State Building this morning and shot several others, before being killed himself.

Employers, please, keep your employees gruntled.

Details are sketchy and, as always, speculation is not a good idea in the beginning stages.

34 Responses to “Several Shot at Empire State Building”

  1. David Neiwert call your office.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  2. lots of on scene pics here

    purportedly of the perp. NSFW or for the squeamish.

    not overly graphic, but dead is dead & blood is blood.

    redc1c4 (403dff)

  3. but at least NYC’s strict gun control laws kept this from happening, just like Chicago’s laws have w*rked so well over the last 24 hours.

    redc1c4 (403dff)

  4. AP says 1 dead, 8 wounded

    Icy (3615bd)

  5. No doubt, Mayor Bloomberg and his armed-to-the-teeth security detail will be on-scene any minute so that he can tell us all that guns are the problem.

    Icy (3615bd)

  6. What redc14 said.

    nk (875f57)

  7. The gunnman had just been fired.

    For some people, that’s the end of life. And if they don’t have proper ethical training, they can then go on and decide to kill other people. The murder is free, in their eyes – a bonus.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  8. “Wearing a suit and carrying a breifcase”. Wounds consistant with buckshot. Wonder what he was using? I’m dreading either the Saiga or the KelTec folder, as this could result in both being outlawed.

    Phillep Harding (1b8b26)

  9. There was once an act of terrorism at the Empire State Building. In 1997, by somebody from Gaza, who had reached the age of 69. He hadn’t been able to get out of Gaza till then.

    His name was Ali Abu Kamal. He opened fire on the observation deck of the Empire State Building. He wounded siz peiople and killed one, plus himself.

    In his trip to the United States he had been put up by the Saudis (slept at some consular facility or something)

    http://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/27/nyregion/empire-state-gunman-gave-no-hint-of-anger-his-hosts-say.html?pagewanted=all

    Late on the afternoon of Dec. 31, Ali Abu Kamal showed up at the Saudi Mission to the United Nations and said he was looking for Taysir H. Badanoro, a high school friend from the Middle East whom he had not seen in more than 30 years.

    Mr. Badanoro, an official at the mission, found the sudden appearance of his old friend curious, but he took him in, accepting Mr. Abu Kamal’s explanation that at age 69, he had retired from teaching English in Gaza and had come to the United States looking for a job.

    The two-month reunion that began in mystery ended in horror. On Sunday, Mr. Abu Kamal awoke in the 38th Street apartment shared by Mr. Badanoro and Mr. Badanoro’s nephew, gave his friend a calculator as a gift and left, saying he was going to buy some luggage, betraying not a trace of his murderous plans.

    Late that night, when Mr. Badanoro and his nephew saw on television a picture of the man who had killed and wounded tourists on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, they recognized the odd diminutive man who had slept on their living room couch for many nights over the last two months.

    …..

    Mr. Badanoro said Mr. Abu Kamal called on Feb. 14 or 15 and announced he was back in New York. Since other visitors were staying at the apartment for a few days Mr. Abu Kamal stayed at the McBurney Y.M.C.A. in Chelsea, until he moved back to Mr. Badanoro’s apartment on Saturday morning.

    That was their story.

    Another New York Times story:

    http://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/25/nyregion/from-teacher-to-gunman-us-visit-ends-in-fatal-rage.html?pagewanted=all

    His family attributed it to financial ruin.

    “he apparently saw his life savings of perhaps $500,000 somehow lost here in a matter of weeks.”

    Yes, he spent it on the terrorist plot.

    Other stories:

    http://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/25/nyregion/loophole-let-gun-buyer-in-florida-evade-waiting-period-for-foreigners.html

    Government officials said there was no mechanism in place to automatically alert the gun dealer or local officials in Florida that Mr. Abu Kamal did not meet a Federal 90-day residency requirement to buy a gun.

    Mr. Abu Kamal entered a Melbourne, Fla., gun shop three weeks ago, showed an identification card issued by the State of Florida, underwent and passed a criminal background check and returned to the store five days later to pick up his new .380-caliber Beretta semiautomatic handgun.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  10. Instead of the more recent and annoying back-formation of “gruntled” used as the opposite of disgruntled (which more literally means utterly gruntled, or RAWTHER grumbly), I propose “eugruntled,” = happy, healthy grumbling or snorting and grunting with glee.

    “I am eugruntled with a nice red stapler for my TPS reports.”

    SarahW (b0e533)

  11. Apparently some or all of the wounded were shot by the two cops as they fired at the gunman:

    Bloomberg said some of the nine people who were hit outside the Empire State Building may have been shot accidentally by police. He said it was not clear whether the gunman managed to fire his weapon at that point. But he said none of the wounded — two women and seven men — have life-threatening injuries.

    Isn’t this one of the reasons folks like Bloomberg don’t like citizens defending themselves? Besides the control thing.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  12. Hazan, targeted by Johnson, was shot in the face and murdered by Johnson before J. was killed.

    Hazan, the victim, is in the pool of blood in the pictures above. Johnson was a little squirrely guy, and dressed in a suit.

    SarahW (b0e533)

  13. I’m reading the two traded accusations of workplace harassment before Johnson was let go.

    SarahW (b0e533)

  14. NYC cops seem to frequently shoot bystanders. Oh, wait, it’s their guns that shoot the bystanders. How many rounds did they fire? (to hit a half-dozen people, must have been hundreds.)

    Sickening. Idiot gun banners in 5 4 3 they’re already on the tube.

    htom (412a17)

  15. What’s the big deal? Norwegian dude was declared sane and given 10-21 year sentence. At least the Euroweenie elites believe in apparent forgiveness, redemption, rehabilitation and mercy. Of course when the Islamists finally take over in Europe, things may change a bit.
    Anyway the horror of a white guy shooting others. Our media an just ignore the shooting last night night in Gun Free Chicago. I think it was 13 in 30 minutes and 17 for the whole night. But of course excusable if gangbangers, whether black or Hispanic. Wonder what sort of October Surprise awaits us? False flag assassination attempt? Pre-emptive war by our war hero potus? He’s already asked that Greece not be booted prior to election.

    Calypso Louis Farrakhan (e799d8)

  16. How many rounds did they fire? (to hit a half-dozen people, must have been hundreds.)

    They probably have extra-large magazines.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  17. It’s fun to get shot by police:

    “In the ambulance we were laughing about it on the way to the hospital. There was another man in the ambulance – he got shot in the butt.”

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  18. The police were apparently on an “anti-terror patrol”, so perhaps they had semi-auto or even automatic weapons. Which they fired into a crowd.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  19. Oh. Here is a much better article (AP) which has actual numbers.

    Apparently the gunman fired 7 rounds, 3 at the initial victim, 4 later (at police presumably). The officers fired 14 rounds. Besides the gunman, 9 people were hit, leaving one to believe that the officers shot some of them. The guns were all semi-auto.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  20. “No doubt, Mayor Bloomberg and his armed-to-the-teeth security detail will be on-scene any minute so that he can tell us all that guns are the problem.”

    Actually, he was talking about gun control on the radio about a half an hour BEFORE the shootings.

    We then got a practical demonstration on just how impossible it is for the government to protect people who have been disarmed, when a man was gunned down in broad daylight, despite the presence of a host of gun armed agents of government in New York city and scads of (completely useless) gun control laws.

    Bloomberg himself, of course is provided with 24 hour a day ARMED police protection by the generous and disarmed citizens of New York City.

    Same old, same old.

    Dave Surls (46b08c)

  21. From NY Daily News:

    The killer and his victim had a history of problems, with each accusing the other of workplace harassment, said NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

    A police source said Ercolino filed his complaint in April 2011 after Johnson reportedly threatened to kill him.
    gun detail
    Marcus Santos for New York Daily News
    shooting Instigram
    Instagram/@mr_mookie

    The two crossed paths as Ercolino returned to the office with breakfast from a nearby coffee shop. Johnson, who was turned away from the company offices Thursday morning because of his sketchy past, was waiting on the block, the source said.

    Once Ercolino was shot, the unidentified construction worker followed the fleeing suspect and notified two cops assigned to the Empire State entrance.

    When they approached Johnson, he pulled the handgun from a black bag and started shooting — with the cops returning fire, said Kelly.

    Construction worker Chris Ogden was working on a scaffold above the building’s 33rd St. entrance when he watched in disbelief as the gunman wordlessly pulled the trigger.

    Ogden, after hearing a gunshot, saw the gunman fire again at his victim from point-blank range.

    Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/person-killed-shooting-empire-state-building-morning-rush-article-1.1143522#ixzz24UkG9NxR

    The Johnson creep was there yesterday…
    Turned away, as he is (was) a nutbar with an order of protection against him who has made threats to kill and employee there. Maybe they should have called to have him arrested for violation of the protective order.

    His hermity lifestyle and odd habit of wearing the same suit every single day – put it with the rest, this does not sound like a man healthy in mind – obviously.

    SarahW (b0e533)

  22. The AP is now reporting 2 dead, 9 wounded; but, apparently they are including the gunman as one of the dead.

    Bad AP! Bad, bad AP!!!

    Icy (3615bd)

  23. Comment by Icy — 8/24/2012 @ 8:11 am

    No doubt, Mayor Bloomberg and his armed-to-the-teeth security detail will be on-scene any minute so that he can tell us all that guns are the problem.

    Mayor Bloomberg is not quite yet ready to admit what happened – all of the wounded are innocent people shot by police. He says they’ll be OK. Or most of them. He’s concentrating on the parts he can say were right. He’s mumbling about whether the killer (who had 8 rounds in his gun(+) got any shots off that hit bystanders, or did it before.

    Things are becoming a little bit clearer. First, this did not take place inside the Empire State Building. There are metal detectors there since that 1997 terrorist killing. Of course, there are people lined up on the street to go in and it’s busy already by 9 AM.

    The person who did it was 58 years old, fired a year ago, not just now. He confronted his 41 year old co-worker and boss pinned him to the ground and shot him in the had and killed him.

    Now there are anti-terrorist police around there, especially since Sept 11th. So before the killer could get anywhere, he was confronted by two policemen. He then aimed his gun at then and tried to kill them. They fired back. All this is oon videptape.

    The two police fired off 16 rounds. Te killer was killed but 7 or 9 people were hot by 15 rounds or something like that. This is a crowded street. This is not the place normally police would fire a gun. Police normally are supposed to fire only three shots and then stop and maybe not at all in such a situation. But he was aiming a gun at them. So that may make it not in violation of police rules. But maybe they didn’t stop in time.

    The gun was legally bought in Florida in 1991 (or was that 1990?) but it was not registered in New York State and probably not legal for the owner to possess.

    Sammy Finkelman (2178a8)

  24. The idiot shot one person.
    The cops shot the rest.

    sleeeepy (b5f718)

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  26. The NYC Police Commissioner is saying that the two cops on the scene fired sixteen (16) rounds and hit nine (9) bystanders.

    Leviticus (102f62)

  27. Oops. See that Sammy already mentioned this.

    Leviticus (102f62)

  28. “two cops on the scene fired sixteen (16) rounds and hit nine (9) bystanders”

    Gee, they usually miss everything except walls and sidewalks. Wow. Their aim is certainly improving.

    Impressive!

    Phillep Harding (1b8b26)

  29. Heh. Of course, this wouldn’t be as humorous if the police had killed a civilian.

    I read that the shooter pulled his gun but never fired at the police. If that’s true, imagine how many shots the police might have fired (and how many civilians they might have hit) if the shooter had fired, too.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  30. Yet another sad example of what happens when politicians can pass laws which apply to others yet not to themselves …

    How long would Concealed Carry Permits be withheld from the vulgate if politicians’ security details could not get them because laws had to apply to *everyone* equally ?

    It is an ongoing source of fascination how equality is such a critically important thing except where it would be inconvenient …

    And before the predictable (and tye-r-some) chorus of “But the Republicans do it too !” arises, I draw the attention of the Jury to one of the first (and possibly the first) pieces of legislation passed by Congress in 1995 when the House of Representatives changed hands from Dem to GOP for the first time in around 40 *years* – which removed a bunch of Congressional and Federal exemptions from laws passed by Congress …

    When politicians are subjects to the same laws as the rest of us, then laws *tend* to be significantly and perceptibly more sensible …

    Alasdair (2cd241)

  31. “How long would Concealed Carry Permits be withheld from the vulgate”
    “Vulgate” refers to language. Are you referring to people?
    I can only imaging the dead if 20 people as badly trained as the cops began to shoot. And of course plainclothes cops have their badges visible for these things and undercover cops wear the color of the day.

    But you want Party Time!
    I suppose you don’t believe in state secrets either. That will really work around here.

    sleeeepy (b5f718)

  32. Comment 3- you’re suggesting that the solution is more guns?

    trebek (e79b35)

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