2 Men Dead In Separate Police-Involved Shootings In Brooklyn
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Two men are dead after separate police-involved shootings that happened within a span of six hours and just miles apart in Brooklyn.
The first shooting happened when police got a call for an emotionally disturbed person around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday from the sister of 63-year-old James Owens.
"Uniformed officers from the 69th precinct responded to a 911 call for a non-violent emotionally disturbed person inside of 967 East 99th Street," NYPD Chief of Patrol Terence Monahan said in a news conference.
When officers arrived on the scene, they say they went into the residence where Owens came out of a back room. Then, according to police, he went into the kitchen where investigators say he got a 13-inch knife and advanced toward the officers.
That's when police say one of the officer used his Taser on Owens.
"Which had no effect. The male continued to advance toward the officers with the knife and the second officer discharged his firearm three times, striking the male," Monahan said. "The officers immediately rendered aid to the male and requested an ambulance."
Police say they believe Owens was hit by all three bullets, at least one of those shots hitting his chest. Owens was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Owens' sister disputes the police version of events.
"He was woozy, he was out of it, so I called 911 for them to take him to the hospital," Rev. Daisy Wright, Owen's sister who lived with him, told CBS2's Raegan Medgie.
"He got upset with the cops and he picked up a knife," Wright said. "The cops didn't say drop it, didn't try to talk him down, didn't do nothing. They just shot him. They shot him three times."
She says police tased her brother after he was shot, but police disagree. They maintain the taser didn't work because it didn't touch Owens's skin.
"I was surprised I didn't get shot. I was right behind him, and I could feel the ricochet of the gun," Wright said.
Police say they shot Owens because they are trained to stop the threat -- in this case, Owens coming at them with a knife.
The second fatal police shooting took place six hours later at around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday on Atlantic Avenue near Grand Avenue in Crown Heights.
Monahan said a plainclothes sergeant and two plainclothes officers were on patrol when they heard gunfire and saw a man firing a gun into the Beehive lounge on Atlantic Avenue.
"People was fighting in front of the club. Dudes started shooting, everybody started running and screaming," one witness said.
"The officers exited their vehicle, identified themselves to the suspect who ran from the officers," said Monahan. "The suspect turned on the officers with his gun in hand and two of the police officers discharged their weapon, striking the suspect in the torso."
The man, who police later identified as 18-year-old Joshua Martino, was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. The officers were also taken to an area hospital for evaluation.
Police said a .38 caliber revolver was recovered at the scene. No one inside the lounge was hurt.
Monahan said Wednesday it's unusual to have two police-involved shootings in one night, but said, "this is something that happens."
"It's a big city, again we had probably our best year ever in crime. The least amount of shootings that we've ever had," he said. "This was an incident, where, in two separate occasions, our officers were faced with people coming at them with deadly instruments, deadly weapons, and we engaged and luckily, all our officers are safe."
The investigation into both incidents is ongoing.
