American exceptionalism in action: gunfights in the streets
by digby
There has got to be a better way:
“We recovered whole bullets from two of the victims, Mr. Kelly said at an event in Harlem. “Actually, we think a total of the three out of the nine bystanders were struck with bullets, the rest were struck with fragments of some sort.”
Mr. Kelly’s comments reinforce the picture that began to emerge on Friday: that in acting quickly and with deadly force, the police prevented the gunman, Jeffrey T. Johnson, 58, from inflicting more harm but in so doing also were responsible for many of the injuries.
Three of the victims were still in the hospital on Saturday, two at Bellevue Hospital Center, the other at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital.
All three were reported in stable condition, the police said.
Mr. Kelly added: “As far as shots being fired yesterday, we had a witness that said that Johnson fired at the police. But the final count of the shells, it appears that that is not the case.”
“The two rounds — one in the magazine, the other ejected from the weapon, neither of those rounds had a firing pin hit, so those rounds were not attempted to be fired, as we can tell right now,” he said in response to questions on whether Mr. Johnson’s gun was fired after he killed Steven Ercolino, 41. “We believe the gun was still functioning. The gun was not fired, that’s correct.”
Asked about how the police responded to the confrontation, Mr. Kelly said, “I believe it was handled well.”
Ok.
I don’t know what could have been done differently, but one thing is clear: it’s a miracle that innocent bystanders weren’t killed in that hail of gunfire. And these were trained police. Imagine how often this happens if every yahoo is armed and ready to shoot as the gun nuts keep insisting is the only thing that can keep us safe.
You would think that a modern nation like the United States could come up with something better than gunfights in the streets to deal with crazy people, but we seem to think it’s not just the only way, it’s the preferred way.
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