TWO PEOPLE were killed and nine others were wounded in a shooting at the base of the Empire State Building, yesterday morning.
Jeffrey Johnson (58) returned to Hazan Imports, where he designed women’s accessories for six years until he was fired last year.
He waited behind a white van parked in front of the company at 10 West 33rd Street until he saw Steve Ercolino, a vice president at Hazan, approaching the front door at about 9am.
“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,” Irene Timan, a Hazan employee walking beside Mr Ercolino, told the New York Times in a telephone call from the precinct house where police were interviewing her.
“I knew it. I just knew it was going to happen. But it was too late,” Ms Timan continued. “Steve screamed. Jeff shot him. I just turned and ran.”
Johnson and Mr Ercolino had filed harassment suits against each other. A co-worker recalled that when Johnson elbowed Mr Ercolino at work two years ago, Mr Ercolino grabbed Johnson by the throat and said, “Do that again and I’ll kill you.”
After shooting Mr Ercolino three times, Johnson put his .45 calibre semiautomatic handgun in a black bag under his arm and set off up Fifth Avenue on foot. A construction worker followed him and alerted two police guards standing in front of the Empire State Building.
Johnson pulled the gun on the policemen. At a press conference on the scene of the shooting, police commissioner Ray Kelly said Johnson opened fire.
However, mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg said it was not clear whether Johnson shot at the officers.
Some of the nine wounded bystanders appeared to have been hit accidentally by the police, he said. None of their injuries were life-threatening.
Mr Kelly said the two officers fired 14 rounds at Johnson. The magazine of his handgun held only eight bullets, and one was still in the gun. Police found a second, loaded ammunition clip in Johnson’s bag.
Marc Engel, an accountant, was riding on an eastbound 34th Street bus when passengers yellowed, “Get down. Get down.”
“There were a lot of pop, pop, pop noises and everyone hit the floor,” Mr Engel told USA Today.
On July 20th, a failing doctoral student killed 12 people and wounded 58 in a cinema in Denver.
On August 5th, a gunman killed six people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin before killing himself.
Yesterday’s shooting was the third this month at a New York tourist site.
On Thursday, the New York Daily News reported, a street vendor near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx shot two rival vendors.
On August 11th, police shot dead Darrius Kennedy (51) at Times Square. Kennedy had walked down Seventh Avenue waving an 11-inch kitchen knife.
Robin Mueller, a German tourist who was on his way to visit the Empire State Building, told the Washington Post: “It’s crazy. I’m shocked. We read in school about gun control, and how it’s insecure in the US. If everyone has a gun, everyone can shoot. It’s dangerous.”
Mr Bloomberg is the co-founder and co-chairman of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of more than 700 mayors who are campaigning for gun control.
Half an hour before Johnson shot Mr Ercolino, Mr Bloomberg was on WOR radio saying, “It is just too many guns on the streets.”
Johnson had lived in a sixth-floor walk-up on East 82nd Street for the last 18 months. The building superintendent said he came downstairs every morning wearing the same beige suit to buy his breakfast at McDonald’s.
Yesterday morning, he didn’t return.
