Saturday, April 25, 2015

[Updating] Report of a shooting on East 6th Street



There's a crime scene developing on East Sixth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B… closer to B.



Witnesses reported hearing a single gun shot inside 538 E. Sixth St. And there is an unconfirmed report that the man shot was an undercover NYPD officer.

Said a witness at the scene: "I think there was a scuffle and then the single shot. I heard that. Other people who happened to be right there said they heard a scuffle.

Updated 2:19 p.m.



Updated 2:34 p.m.

Per PIX 11:

A man is in critical condition after a police-involved shooting.

Two detectives were conducting an investigation at East 6th Street just before 2 p.m. when the shooting occurred.

No other info at the moment.

Updated 2:49 p.m.



Updated 2:52 p.m.

From the Post:

A man was shot and critically wounded by police in the East Village, sources said.

Two police officers suffered lacerations to their heads but it wasn’t immediately clear if they were attacked by the suspect.

Updated 2:58 p.m.



Updated 3:08 p.m.

The Daily News reports that the two officers shot a man in the following an altercation. There aren't many other details at the moment.

According to people at the scene, the house in question includes a drug-treatment facility and that the suspect was trying to steal methadone. (All unconfirmed.)

Updated 3:29 p.m.

From the crime reporter at the Post...



Updated 3:41 p.m.

The Post confirms that the suspect was shot dead.

Police shot and killed a man as they tried to arrest him Saturday at an East Village halfway house, authorities said.

Detectives from the 26th Precinct in Harlem tried to arrest the suspect around 1:45 p.m. at a facility for people released from psychiatric institutions near the intersection of East 6th Street and Avenue A.

The suspect grabbed one of the detectives’ radios, and then hit the detective over the head, said sources.

Updated 8:30 p.m.

The Times has an updated story. Here's some of their report:

When they confronted him on the sixth floor, he jumped out a window and climbed down the fire escape, Chief O’Neill said. The detectives were able to catch up to him on the first floor.

“A violent physical struggle ensued, during which the suspect grabbed one of the police officer’s walkie-talkies and struck the detective in the head,” Chief O’Neill said.

The struggle lasted for about five minutes he said, ending when one of the detectives fired a single shot into the man’s torso.

The detectives, who were in plain clothes and who were not identified, each had over 20 years with the department.

Updated 8:36 p.m.

Some photos from the scene this afternoon via Edward Arrocha …







Updated 7 a.m., 4/26



Dave on 7th notes that there was a lone protestor last night on Avenue A at East Sixth Street … with signs reading "disarm the NYPD" and others…

Updated 12:35 p.m.

The Post identifies the victim as Felix David, 22, who was wanted for "beating and robbing a female acquaintance in a classroom building at City College in Harlem on Thursday evening."

The Post also reported that some of the five-minute struggle between David and the NYPD officers was captured on video.

58 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thoughts and prayers with all of the injured. Guns suck. Cowards carry them. Poor young wanna be's trying to be "about that life." Sigh. Peace and love please.

Anonymous said...

I was wondering why there were so many low-flying, super loud helicopters!

Anonymous said...

Clearly tragic for all involved, and for the neighborhood. I know that all the fact are not yet clear, but let's hope that the police had no alternative but to use deadly force.

Anonymous said...

I didn't realize there was a halfway house for people released from psychiatric institutions on East 6th Street. I guess I hadn't heard of it because there haven't been problems before, although maybe the neighbors will tell a different story.

Scuba Diva said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Its called Odyssey House. It is a drug or alcohol rehabilitation center with a primary focus on substance abuse treatment. Its on 309 East 6 street

Anonymous said...

I love when people blame guns for criminal behavior. Might as well blame Chrysler for drunk driving deaths.

Anonymous said...

I live on this block and while sometimes there is an odd character or two by the facility, I actually wish we could convert some of the surrounding buildings into half-way houses, instead of dealing with the current WOOO crowd, who are simply pests. I hope this news doesn't drive any NIMBYism among the neighbors. These facilities are important.

Anonymous said...

I've advocated getting rid of the half-way house, which shouldn't be in a residential neighborhood as densely populated as the EV.
Put them all on SI.

Anonymous said...

Oh Boy! Post Psych Treatment Facilities right around the corner.

Anonymous said...

You people really don't know about these places? They're EVERYWHERE in EV!

Anonymous said...

Anon 4:39PM - This wasn't Odyssey House and wasn't anywhere near 309 East 6th (which is b/n 1st & 2nd Aves, closer to 2nd). This was between A & B - closer to B.

Anonymous said...

The problem with most of these treatment facilities is that there isn't much treatment going on. I am surrounded by several and i have to deal with many of these people who don't want to be treated but are just going through the motions to avoid more jail time

Anonymous said...

I've advocated getting rid of people who want to get rid of half-way houses, and are too insufferable to live in close proximity to anyone else.

Anonymous said...

Why would being hit on the head with a radio by a suspected robber merit killing the suspect (who was close enough to touch them and could have been subdued by two police)? Police are not supposed to be the judge, jury and executioner. Their job is only to APPREHEND, to simply catch and bring suspected lawbreakers to others whose job it is to administer the justice.

equilibrist said...

I've lived on this block for 20 years and had no idea there was any kind of halfway house on the block.

equilibrist said...

@anonymous 4:39, 309 E. 6th street is definitely not the block where the shooting took place.

Scuba Diva said...

At 4:42 PM, Anonymous said:

I've advocated getting rid of the half-way house, which shouldn't be in a residential neighborhood as densely populated as the EV.
Put them all on SI.


Unfortunately, SI is becoming some prime real estate, and they won't want the psychiatric patients either; they'll say, "Give 'em to New Jersey—but not Montclair, because I'm thinking of buying land there, and I don't want it devalued."

Anonymous said...

To the person who wants to ship the mentally ill off to SI - There are facilities for homelessness, mental health issues, and addiction all over the LES. Tompkins is home to many people who are in need of these services. Putting these facilities elsewhere does not provide help if the individuals in need cannot access them. Most people didn't even know this place was there, which means that they are clearly doing a good job maintaining the mental health of their clients.

Drug addiction, homelessness, people with psych issues... they exist right in our backyards. They need to be treated, not ignored. No matter how hard you try, you cannot wish them away.

Anonymous said...

It probably isn't the greatest location for a drug and alcohol halfway house given that this neighborhood is chock full of temptation and opportunity, but I am sure it is difficult to find locations for these facilities.

Anonymous said...

Chryslers are designed to convey people. Guns are designed to kill people. Why am I even wasting the time on an idiot like you?

Anonymous said...

Great, there are two halfway houses on the block? ugh

Anonymous said...

Bros are worse than kooks.

Anonymous said...

I find it hilarious that someone thinks A there are no "halfway houses" in the EV and B that there shouldn't be. Wow. Bonus C - that SI isn't heavily populated. Talk about a non-local comment...

Shawn said...

I've had not one but two bikes stolen from this very block, and my friends have had several stolen as well. Not any other block but East 6th have I ever had a problem with bike thieves.

Curious.

Of note there is a new halfway house called the Mary Spink Apartments that just went up on 11th Street not 1/2 block from me.

We should welcome people who are trying to get better and re-enter society.

We don't welcome bike thieves.

equilibrist said...

Grieve, thanks for your thorough, as usual, reporting. You are a valued resource for all of us in the neighborhood.

Anonymous said...

RE: why he was shot to kill.
These cops were from another precinct in Harlem. The 9th Precinct would have just raped you while you were drunk (in ref to 2011 failure)
I think maybe we just put all the bros in the halfway houses instead. Really they probably drink enough to qualify.

Pinch said...

According to reports, the 22 year-old suspect physically attacked a 21 year-old woman at City College. Then when the Police Officers tried to apprehend him in the building on 6th street, he climbed down the fire escape...he then fought with the Police for 5 minutes and while doing so hit one of the cops in the head so hard with the police radio that the radio cracked. If someone was attacking me, I'd fight for my life too.

Anonymous said...

"It probably isn't the greatest location for a drug and alcohol halfway house given that this neighborhood is chock full of temptation and opportunity, but I am sure it is difficult to find locations for these facilities."

You clearly don't understand addiction. EVERYWHERE you go there's temptation and opportunity. It's no worse/better here than anywhere else.

Anonymous said...

A couple of weeks ago, the press all reported that a SC cop was attacked with his own taser and had to shoot the guy, which turned out to be a complete lie. The cop shot the guy in the back as he was running away.

I hope someone has the video of this shooting.

Anonymous said...

Fuck off. You obviously have no idea how substance abuse or addiction works. People like you are the reason this neighborhood has become a sterile yuppie wasteland.

Anonymous said...

Maybe if enough of this happens, our rents will go down again.

Anonymous said...

Wrong one silly, that's between 1st & 2nd. That one is for teens. It's the Eadt Village, they are all around. But the realtors won't let your mom & dad know...

Anonymous said...

I have had a few friends who were addicts and they had to get out of the East Village. It was too easy to get what they wanted here. Even moving you have to be careful because there are areas like western Massachusetts where the drug trade is heavy. The East Village is a party zone and not the best place to be.

Unknown said...

Well, it's good news that the cops shot and killing this thug. I hope that this neighborhood doesn't start to slip back into the dark days of the 70s and 80s.

Anonymous said...

@Anon 5:55 -- nail, head.

Giovanni said...

@12:17 am You had me at "fuck off." Addiction is everywhere and people with addictions need help, not shunnng ot ignorant judgement from iternet trolls.

That place has been a halfway house for decades, this shooting has nothing to do with it. Bellevue releases mentally ill patients all day long, and many of them end up in the Village, so how anyone thinks you can just ship them off the island or hide them in another borough is ludicrous.

Sterile yuppie wasteland indeed, as if all those coke-snorting bourbon-sipping craft-beer-gulping yuppies aren't addicts too. Now pass the vaporizer and STFU.

That being said, this is the second fatal police shooting in the city this week alone, the other was when a guy shooting and waving a gun around in a bar in Queens was shot and killed. Right now both of these incidents sound like the police were just doing their job. But until we have bodycams and video of every incident some people won't trust any official account, especially after shootings like that of Akai Gurley, killed while walking down his own stairway, seem to keep happening at an alarming rate.

LPIFLY said...

Yes, these weren't the average east village cops who deal with drug addicts and the Bellevue psych cylcle all there time. Still,there was no need to KILL this UNARMED Man. Where are the NYPD tasers, or good ol pistol whipping and chock holds. if the suspect was able to significantly hurt an officer with a radio, why not just use the other radio or a rock. Do they even have tasers?

NOT worth shooting a gun, mid day on a Saturday when the streets are full of people. And for stealing methadone, that's just the epitome of sad.

Anonymous said...

THE serious problem here is the manner in which police departments around the WORLD have been trained IMPROPERLY!

In the past you could TOUCH a cop and not die. Hell. I recall fights WITH cops (to settle disagreements) that DID NOT result in gunplay, or even arrests. MOST officers didn't even have guns. Today, you give a cop a friendly pat on the shoulder, 99 times out of a hundred they will spin away from your TOUCH and most likely pull their weapon(s).

In the past, you could have a more serious altercation, even one confronting an armed person, and cops were taught to aim for a "disarming" shot to the outer/lower extremities. "Shoot to kill" was NOT the go-to response.

Now, with all the militery-initiated weaponry/supplies/software/training that have been provided to local/state police departments via the Patriot Act, we are no longer dealing with organizations that see themselves as "under public supervision" (if they ever did). We are ALL seen as potential threats at ALL times.
You LOOK at a cop the wrong way and your taking your life in your hands. If you are ANY kind of a different color/look/language, why you are OF COURSE a possible terrorist.And that cop you'll be dealing with will be armed to the teeth, with military weaponry on call.

June 1st is the date that Congress will renew or pullback from the Patriot Act.

MAKE SOME NOISE PEOPLE!
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Anonymous said...

One of the posters from the lone protester called for another vigil tonight, Sunday at 8pm

Anonymous said...

Love all the angst. You all want old NYC back well this is part of it. Go look at the crime stats from the old days.. You dont want the cops to shoot? Well they arent going to use chokeholds or tasers. If they beat the guy down its brutality right? Whats your answer captain liberal? Cant control a 2 yr old at whole foods but you are a law enforcement expert. Right. You want the cheaper rent but not the grime. You want the protection but complain about it. Pathetic.

Anonymous said...

12:02,

LOL thinking that many liberals post on EVG. You must not live in the EV.

Pinch said...

If it is thus far as reported, then if the suspect fought with the Detectives for 5 minutes or so, they probably tried multiple ways to gain control of the situation prior to his being shot.

Anonymous said...

To 12:02. You seem pretty angsty yourself, Captain Conservative. Not sure who you're talking to but I'm actually still here from the old NYC (EV) and remember it well and no this is not "part of it". Back then the cops for the most part left us alone. They were not running around shooting people every other day. We can do without this kind of "protection".

Anonymous said...

The vigil is supposed to be at the 9th precinct on 5th St. at 8pm. Sunday

LPIFLY said...

I would really like to know more about what happened here. Sure there aren't any videos coming out, but this again strikes me as using deadly force against an unarmed person. 2 cops vs 1 mild criminal/addict who had to reach for a radio, rather than a cops gun, to fight them off. @201 you are so right. Cops knew the heroin addicts and alcoholics weren't even worth going there. Again, I blame the 26th Harlem Precinct, not the 9th Precinct that would have dealt with this differently.

Anonymous said...

Liberals? EVGrieve is Tea Party central.

Anonymous said...

Yea the cops left everyone alone. I guess we're going back to that. I'm sure that will work well.

Anonymous said...

@LPIFLY: Reading comprehension - try it! You write "2 cops vs 1 mild criminal/addict". Ah, yes, a "mild criminal/addict" - that's someone who isn't after YOUR ass! If that guy were assaulting YOU, I think you'd see it differently.

Meantime the guy who was shot & killed was being pursued by the cops for "beating and robbing a female acquaintance at a classroom building at City College" - so really, he was a TOTALLY mild & innocent guy in your view, is that right? And you'd have been just fine if he'd been after you?

Anonymous said...

Updates just said there was a video according to the Post. Finally objectivity

Anonymous said...

@6:29pm: "Finally objectivity" - does that mean there's ALSO video of whatever the dead guy did to the woman uptown? Or doesn't that matter?

So: If there's no video, does that mean something didn't happen?

This is what the age of selfies has brought us: If you're not visible online, you don't exist; if something's not video'd for the world to see, it must not have ever happened.

All of history prior to Instagram is merely hypothesis.

Anonymous said...

It sounds like this guy was pretty hyped up. The cops were pursuing him because he had attacked and beaten a woman at City College. Also, police radios are freakin' heavy. You could kill someone with one blow to the head. It sounds like this guy was raging and someone in that state is dangerous.

Anonymous said...

Mentally ill psychos are killing innocent people all the time. This guy had a track record of violence grabbing a heavy radio and bashing it to someone's head could be seen as attempted murder...especially if it's your head one shot was fired no a barrage of bullets in a crowd street. Police were investigating a robbery acting accordingly when he jumped out the window he started a chain of events that changed things. Perhaps the Detectives should have just said Ah Shucks and went to Sunny and Annie's for coffee. Then Psycho Boy could go to the subway and push someone in front of a train.

LPIFLY said...

@624, Does it make it easier to flame someone here, behind the comfort of your screen, when they don't hide behind an anonymous?
Reading comprehension: mild criminal: one that has not done a major crime, an altercation and robbery of a purse is bad, but it is still not a major crime. A guy approved to live in a half way house is and was a former addict.
I personally have been beaten up pretty badly by a guy and had the cops treat it as a minor domestic offense.
Besides if we've learned anything about the recent shootings, its not the past crime that dictates the shot, its the evading arrest and the decision a cop makes. Bottom line, the guy didn't deserve to die.
And people who weigh in on the issue shouldn't automatically be insulted right off for their thoughts. Notice how I didn't insult you, your opinion, or your intelligence once? But I guess flaming and putting people's intelligence/opinions down makes you feel better or more right, so whatever you need, it doesn't bother me. People dying who are stuggling with addiction do.

Anonymous said...

@LPIFLY: Most of us here choose to be anonymous, so that is not an issue.

You write: "I personally have been beaten up pretty badly by a guy and had the cops treat it as a minor domestic offense." And did you feel that was right? Did it anger you? Wouldn't you rather the police had taken it more seriously?

I have an opinion and you have a different opinion. But I would not call a person (whether that person is an addict or not) a "mild criminal" if that person has a history of serious assaults, as this man did.

Anonymous said...

To @3:46: Even if he had a history of serious assaults that still doesn't mean that the police can shoot him, even if he's trying to get away. The police are to catch him and deliver him into the justice system to be sorted out by people who have been trained to make these judgements. That's how it works.

Anonymous said...

Please tell me another incident where a kid was walking down a dark stairwell and was shot by a cop with an itchy trigger finger. You know, since it's happening at an "alarming" rate.

Anonymous said...

@8:30pm: Give it up, already! The guy wasn't just "trying to get away" - he was assaulting the police officer, following his earlier assault on a woman uptown.

I don't know why you are being an apologist for someone who, according to most press reports, had a history of paranoid schizophrenia and violent assault.

Here's another case in the news today, where the police didn't shoot anyone, but the bad guy sure got away with murder; I'm posting this link because maybe some people need a reminder that unhinged persons can be fatal to innocent others, and that the police are NOT always killing someone:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/29/nyregion/former-resident-kills-director-of-bronx-homeless-shelter-police-say.html?ref=nyregion&_r=0