The Duane Reade at 2522 Broadway (Google Maps)
An early morning argument between a 42 and 66-year-old man quickly escalated to a stabbing, which then led an off-duty police officer to fire his gun at the suspect, multiple publications report.
The fight began around 7am on Friday, January 28 inside the Duane Reade drug store at 2522 Broadway at 94th Street. An off-duty officer, who was working as a security guard, told the two men – who multiple sources say may have been fighting over shoplifting – to take it outside. Once outside, the 42-year-old stabbed the older man and fled on foot.
The off-duty cop chased the suspect and caught him on 94th and Amsterdam, at which point the suspect refused to relinquish his knife. The officer then shot the suspect in the stomach.
Both the suspect and victim are reported to be in stable condition.
Several videos showing police at the scene were shared on the Citizen App:
Man Shot After Stabbing Man @CitizenApp
W 94th St & Amsterdam Ave 7:05:04 AM EST
“The off-duty cop chased the suspect and caught him on 94th and Amsterdam, at which point the suspect refused to relinquish his knife. The officer then shot the suspect in the stomach.”
The way that’s phrased, that doesn’t seem like a justification for shooting the stabber, especially since the cop was shooting the stabber out on the street.
What should he have done, challenge the guy to a fistfight?
The way the paragraph I quoted is phrased does NOT indicate that the cop should have been firing his gun out on a public street.
Your “question”, without justification documented anywhere in this reporting, simply assumes that the moonlighting cop was required to fire his gun.
Think of it this way: It’s 7AM, a guy slashes someone inside an open Duane Reade, and an NYPD cop moonlighting as security for the Wal-Reade approaches the slasher gun drawn, then the slasher lunges at the cop with the knife and the cop seemingly justifiably shoots the slasher. All well and “good”, except this Duane Reade is open and I assure you that the “walls” of the aisles won’t stop bullets. So the cop, by firing his gun, has unequivocally made a bad situation even more dangerous.
Well, the cop-security guard out on the street made pretty much the same bad choice, and the only “justification” for the shooting in the paragraph I quoted is that the slasher refused to drop his knife. That the slasher made a “stand” is itself NOT justification for an armed security guard to have shot him on public street, since it’s the security guard (ostensibly a trained cop) who has now massively endangered the public.
I hope your understanding of the public safety issues involved is now clearer.
Firing the gun on the street made matters worse. And it certainly didn’t help the person who’d been slashed. There are plenty of security cameras in side Duane Reades.
There’s a long history of NYC cops firing guns widely and widely, often with no justification at all, out on the streets and endangering and/or injuring members of the public out on the streets/avenues.
So going by what I quoted, the security guard’s life was not endangered, therefore he should not have fired his gun.
He’s a cop. He’s confronting an armed felon. Who has just committed a felony right in front of his eyes. And whoisn’t surrendering, but rather, is threatening.
What should he have done?
The police officer’s life was threatened when the knife was pulled. He was justified to defend himself with a gun. Period.
i’ve seen shoplifting in this store before and the security guard could do nothing. I guess the guards upgraded to carrying weapons. When I saw the guy shoplift, it was over cereal and cans of soup. I remember thinking the shoplifter was just trying to get food.