The New York Police Department’s trigger happy-hands have struck again. Two bystanders in tourist haven Times Square were shot Saturday by cops trying to shoot a man who was trying to kill himself.
On Saturday night, police officers noticed a man weaving in and out of traffic, seemingly trying to get himself hit. The police officers told him to stop, but he didn’t, and the disturbed man then acted like he had a gun. That act drew fire from the cops--but they didn’t hit the man, who has been identified as a 35-year-old named Glenn Broadnax.
Instead, two women were shot. One victim was a 54-year-old woman who used a walker who was shot in her right leg. The other was a 35-year-old who suffered a graze wound to her buttocks. The police stopped firing and successfully subdued the man with no guns. They used a Taser on the man instead. Witnesses to the shootings questioned why the police were so eager to use their guns on an unarmed man.
“From what I saw, he had nothing in his arms that was a weapon. My reaction was like, ‘Wait, why are they shooting at him?’” witness Kerri-Ann Nesbeth told the New York Times.
This incident came about a year after a similar, though more disturbing, shooting incident involving the NYPD. Police officers trying to shoot an armed murder suspect struck nine witnesses near the Empire State Building.