Post by WaTcHeR on Apr 3, 2006 10:40:36 GMT -5
01/29/2006 - BRONX - Police on Sunday were analyzing a fast-food restaurant's security video to identify a group of men in the beating of an off-duty officer who later pulled his gun and was shot three times by a colleague in a case of mistaken identity.
The officer who was shot in the Saturday morning melee, Eric Hernandez, 24, was in critical condition at St. Barnabas Hospital but was improving, police said. He underwent almost four hours of surgery following the shooting, in which he was struck once in each leg and once in the abdomen.
Tests conducted at the hospital indicated Hernandez was intoxicated at the time of the incident, a law enforcement official said.
Police released the security video from the White Castle restaurant in the Bronx where the assault took place to help identify those involved.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who held a press conference Saturday with police Commissioner Ray Kelly at the hospital, said Hernandez was in line at the White Castle in the Tremont section when he was assaulted by a half-dozen men.
The confrontation started when someone taunted Hernandez, who was in street clothes, and told him, "You should be paying for our sodas," police said.
The men severely beat Hernandez, repeatedly kicking him in the head before he crawled out of the restaurant and into the parking lot with his gun drawn. Outside, the officer subdued a man and was standing over him with his gun pointed when a patrol car arrived, Bloomberg said.
One of the two officers in the car "apparently thought (Hernandez) was about to shoot another individual being held at gunpoint," Kelly said. The officer, Alfredo Toro, of Washingtonville, then opened fire, police said.
Two of the bullets struck main arteries, leaving Hernandez with massive blood loss. Hernandez never fired his weapon.
Several witnesses, including the man subdued by Hernandez, heard the uniformed officers order Hernandez to drop his gun, police said. One person heard the officers repeat the command up to four times, they said.
Police were exploring the theory that the beating that Hernandez received in the restaurant may have affected his ability to hear the command to drop his gun.
Kelly said Saturday that police were questioning eight people about the shooting, including most of those who fought with Hernandez inside the White Castle.
As of Sunday, no charges had been filed.
The shooting was believed to be the New York Police Department's first friendly fire shooting since that of Desmond Robinson, who was in plainclothes and was shot in the back by an off-duty officer on Aug. 22, 1994. Robinson had his gun drawn on a subway platform, and the officer mistook him for a criminal.
?