(Adds name of deceased in eighth paragraph.)
Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) -- A man fired from his job near the Empire State Building returned to his former workplace today and shot a co-worker, triggering a firefight with police near one of Manhattan’s most recognizable landmarks. The shooter and a 41- year-old man died, and as many as nine people were injured.
The assailant, Jeffrey Johnson, was fired last year from his job as a women’s accessory designer at Hazan Imports Corp., Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at a news briefing. The 58-year-old Manhattan resident returned to the business on West 33rd Street and shot a manager in the head at close range on the street at 9:03 a.m. local time, Kelly said.
Johnson took a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol from his bag after two officers on counterterrorism patrol approached him fleeing the scene, Kelly said. A construction worker helped identify the shooter, who was dressed in a gray business suit.
“The perpetrator pulled his gun out and tried to shoot at the cops,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters in a news briefing at the scene. “Whether he got off any bullets or not is to be determined. How many he shot earlier, to be determined. We do know that the cops fired back. The tape clearly shows that the guy has the gun out and was trying to kill the police officers.”
Friendly Fire
Today’s shooting is the third this month at a major tourist attraction in the most populous U.S. city. Yesterday, a street vendor near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx shot two competitors and on Aug. 11, police gunned down a knife-wielding man near Times Square.
Some of today’s victims, all of whom are expected to survive, may have been shot accidentally by police, Kelly said. The injured included two women and seven men who were taken to hospitals.
Johnson doesn’t appear to have a criminal record, said the mayor, who is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.
The Wall Street Journal identified the slain victim as Steven Ercolino, citing a woman who gave her name as Andrea and said she was his sister-in-law.
A man who answered a telephone listed in his name said, “Respect our sorrow, please,” before hanging up without giving his name.
Fatal Encounter
The New York Times reported that a woman who worked with Ercolino was walking with him when he was killed. Irene Timan, 35, was near their building when she saw Johnson behind a van, the newspaper reported.
“I saw him pull a gun out from his jacket, and I thought to myself, ‘Oh my God, he’s going to shoot him’ — and I wanted to turn and push Steve out of the way,” Timan told the Times. “I knew it, I just knew it was going to happen. But it was too late. Steve screamed, Jeff shot him, and I just turned and ran.”
Johnson and the victim made complaints to police last year accusing each another of verbal harassment, Detective Martin Speechley said.
About 11:45 a.m., police removed a body clad in gray slacks in front of the Empire State Building’s entrance on Fifth Avenue. Evidence markers were scattered around the sidewalk. Another sheeted body on 33rd Street was taken away about 12:30 p.m.
Rebecca Fox, 27, who lives in the borough of Queens, had been walking on 34th Street near Fifth Avenue when she saw a woman who was shot in the foot lying on the ground. The apparent shooter was prone nearby.
“There was blood all over the ground,” she said. “I saw his head move, and I think he’s dead. I’m just in shock.”
Manhattan Monument
The 1,453-foot, 103-story skyscraper was completed in 1931. It was the tallest building in the world until New York’s World Trade Center was built in the early 1970s. Its 86th- and 102nd- floor observatories attract about 4 million visitors a year, according to its website.
In 1997, a gunman opened fire on a crowd on its observation deck, killing one person. At least six people were injured.
The New York shootings follow a series of mass killings, including one on July 20 near Denver, when a masked gunman opened fire in a suburban Aurora theater, killing 12 and injuring 58. James Holmes, a former graduate student in neuroscience at the University of Colorado in Denver, faces multiple murder charges.
In Oak Creek, Wisconsin, a gunman killed six people at a Sikh temple Aug. 5 before being wounded by police and taking his own life.
--With assistance from Patricia Hurtado, Michelle Kaske, Romy Varghese, David M. Levitt and Michael Weiss in New York and Rodney Yap in Los Angeles. Editors: Stephen Merelman, Mark Schoifet
To contact the reporters on this story: David McLaughlin in New York at [email protected]; Esme E. Deprez in New York at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman at [email protected]; John Pickering at [email protected].
Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) -- A man fired from his job near the Empire State Building returned to his former workplace today and shot a co-worker, triggering a firefight with police near one of Manhattan’s most recognizable landmarks. The shooter and a 41- year-old man died, and as many as nine people were injured.
The assailant, Jeffrey Johnson, was fired last year from his job as a women’s accessory designer at Hazan Imports Corp., Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at a news briefing. The 58-year-old Manhattan resident returned to the business on West 33rd Street and shot a manager in the head at close range on the street at 9:03 a.m. local time, Kelly said.
Johnson took a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol from his bag after two officers on counterterrorism patrol approached him fleeing the scene, Kelly said. A construction worker helped identify the shooter, who was dressed in a gray business suit.
“The perpetrator pulled his gun out and tried to shoot at the cops,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters in a news briefing at the scene. “Whether he got off any bullets or not is to be determined. How many he shot earlier, to be determined. We do know that the cops fired back. The tape clearly shows that the guy has the gun out and was trying to kill the police officers.”
Friendly Fire
Today’s shooting is the third this month at a major tourist attraction in the most populous U.S. city. Yesterday, a street vendor near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx shot two competitors and on Aug. 11, police gunned down a knife-wielding man near Times Square.
Some of today’s victims, all of whom are expected to survive, may have been shot accidentally by police, Kelly said. The injured included two women and seven men who were taken to hospitals.
Johnson doesn’t appear to have a criminal record, said the mayor, who is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.
The Wall Street Journal identified the slain victim as Steven Ercolino, citing a woman who gave her name as Andrea and said she was his sister-in-law.
A man who answered a telephone listed in his name said, “Respect our sorrow, please,” before hanging up without giving his name.
Fatal Encounter
The New York Times reported that a woman who worked with Ercolino was walking with him when he was killed. Irene Timan, 35, was near their building when she saw Johnson behind a van, the newspaper reported.
“I saw him pull a gun out from his jacket, and I thought to myself, ‘Oh my God, he’s going to shoot him’ — and I wanted to turn and push Steve out of the way,” Timan told the Times. “I knew it, I just knew it was going to happen. But it was too late. Steve screamed, Jeff shot him, and I just turned and ran.”
Johnson and the victim made complaints to police last year accusing each another of verbal harassment, Detective Martin Speechley said.
About 11:45 a.m., police removed a body clad in gray slacks in front of the Empire State Building’s entrance on Fifth Avenue. Evidence markers were scattered around the sidewalk. Another sheeted body on 33rd Street was taken away about 12:30 p.m.
Rebecca Fox, 27, who lives in the borough of Queens, had been walking on 34th Street near Fifth Avenue when she saw a woman who was shot in the foot lying on the ground. The apparent shooter was prone nearby.
“There was blood all over the ground,” she said. “I saw his head move, and I think he’s dead. I’m just in shock.”
Manhattan Monument
The 1,453-foot, 103-story skyscraper was completed in 1931. It was the tallest building in the world until New York’s World Trade Center was built in the early 1970s. Its 86th- and 102nd- floor observatories attract about 4 million visitors a year, according to its website.
In 1997, a gunman opened fire on a crowd on its observation deck, killing one person. At least six people were injured.
The New York shootings follow a series of mass killings, including one on July 20 near Denver, when a masked gunman opened fire in a suburban Aurora theater, killing 12 and injuring 58. James Holmes, a former graduate student in neuroscience at the University of Colorado in Denver, faces multiple murder charges.
In Oak Creek, Wisconsin, a gunman killed six people at a Sikh temple Aug. 5 before being wounded by police and taking his own life.
--With assistance from Patricia Hurtado, Michelle Kaske, Romy Varghese, David M. Levitt and Michael Weiss in New York and Rodney Yap in Los Angeles. Editors: Stephen Merelman, Mark Schoifet
To contact the reporters on this story: David McLaughlin in New York at [email protected]; Esme E. Deprez in New York at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman at [email protected]; John Pickering at [email protected].