By Michael Wilson
 

Investigators near the body of Jeffrey Johnson, the gunman, who was shot at 16 times by the police and was hit at least 7 times. Courtesy of Chang Lee/The New York Times

The encounter was breathtakingly brief: a surveillance video showed a gunman outside the Empire State Building pulling a pistol, pointing it at two police officers, their firing at him and his falling to the sidewalk.

All the yelling and cries of pain occurred out of camera view, just north of where the gunman, Jeffrey Johnson, collapsed and died: nine bystanders were struck, cradling bloody arms or lying on the sidewalks and curbs.

The police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, confirmed that all nine were wounded by police bullets, bullet fragments or shrapnel from ricochets. Kelly also confirmed that the shooter, Johnson, never fired another shot after killing a former co-worker, Steven Ercolino, moments earlier.

“We had a witness that said that Johnson fired at the police,” Kelly said. “But the final count of the shells, it appears that that is not the case.”

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Source: The New York Times