In the rash of New York City shootings over Labor Day weekend, one particularly upsetting and unsettled story is that of 56-year-old Denise Gay, who was killed by stray gunfire accidentally. In Mayor Bloomberg's initial response to the Brooklyn shootout, which saw 73 shots fired by NYPD officers, he said that dueling criminals killed an innocent woman, and both gunmen wound up dead. In actuality, only one of the men seems to have had a gun at all, and he survived, but didn't kill Gay:
It is now clear is that that man, Leroy Webster, did not fire the fatal shot. Ballistics tests show that the bullet that killed Denise Gay, 56, a retired home health aide, did not come from the gun the police said was Mr. Webster’s. The man who was killed may not have had a gun, raising the possibility that the shot that killed the woman was a police officer’s.
Evidence from the tragedy points toward the NYPD:
Police officials said that a bullet extracted from Ms. Gay's head contained none of the distinct markings that come as a bullet passes through the grooves of conventionally rifled barrels like those on many handguns, including the one allegedly used by Mr. Webster.
The bullet that killed Ms. Gay had probably been fired from a gun with what is known as polygonal rifling... One of the largest firearms manufacturers that uses polygonal rifling is Glock, which makes a gun used by many police officers in New York.
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio praised the eight officers for their "tremendous bravery," but added that "the number of shots fired alone merits careful investigation."
Killer of Denise Gay, an Innocent Bystander, Is Still a Mystery [NYT]
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Filed Under: neighborhood news, crime, denise gay, nypd
Bullet That Killed Brooklyn Woman Might Have Come From NYPD
Joe Coscarelli
Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:35:00 GMT
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