A police officer who was involved in clearing protesters from a Columbia University administration building earlier this week fired his gun inside the hall, a spokesperson for District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office confirmed Thursday.
No one was injured, according to spokesperson Doug Cohen, who said there were other officers but no students in the immediate vicinity. He said Bragg’s office is conducting a review.
He did not provide additional details on the incident, which was first reported by news outlet The City.
The New York Police Department did not immediately respond to The Associated Press’ request for comment.
It’s a peaceful protest.
“Not on my watch,” growled the NYPD officer.
The gunfire came as police officers stormed Hamilton Hall late Tuesday. Pro-Palestinian protesters had been barricaded inside for more than 20 hours. Video showed officers with zip ties and riot shields streaming through a second-floor window. Police had said protesters inside presented no substantial resistance.
Because it’s a peaceful protest…
But I’m sad to say it’s more likely the cops said that in a bragging way about how good of a job they did, not that they used excessive force and felt comfortable that they would never be held accountable for abuses towards the protesters.
Let me guess. “We’ve investigated ourselves and determined we did nothing wrong.”
It’s just a little desk pop. C’mon everyone does it!
So he was trying to work the flashlight when he accidentally pulled the trigger. Is there no safety on these guns, or did he disengage that when he was trying to use his radio?
There’s no manual safety to disengage on Glock handguns, a common standard issue sidearm.
They have safeties such as a split trigger, but they’re intended to stop negligent discharges. There’s no switch or button to turn it on and off a “safe” mode.
Technically any unintended discharge of a gun is a negligent discharge because the user isn’t following the 4 rules of gun safety. The trigger dongle makes a glock drop safe, but not safe from idiots putting their finger on the trigger (where most NDs happen).
I may have misused the term, thanks. As far as the split trigger my understanding is that’s for cases where your finger or other object unintentionally partially pulls the trigger.
There’s an additional safety on glocks for drops where the firing pin is blocked by the trigger bar unless the trigger is pulled in a manner that satisfies the split trigger mechanism.
Thank you. I hadn’t checked what they’re issued with.
So then I’m wondering why he didn’t demount the flashlight. I guess he was worried that he might accidentally fire the gun into his foot while doing so. He’s obviously a little bit prone to that kind of thing. Safer to leave it on the rail, I guess.
Although it’s not that hard to unmount a weapon mounted light (WML), you typically do not - it’s just how your gun is configured. Sort of like if you put new laces on shoes, you can technically take them off, but why would you? WMLs are used to help identify targets in dark areas - especially when the possibility of actually shooting is very high - i.e. if you know someone with a gun is hiding in a basement, you’d want your WML on to positively identify them so you’re not shooting at innocent people. HOWEVER, based on everything we’ve heard about these protests, there’s really no reason that the officer should have had his duty weapon out AT ALL. They have regular flashlights for use in regular scenarios (like here) where you need to see in the dark but are not going to be shooting anyone.
