Police Shoot Brooklyn Man During Course of Gun Battle
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Police shot and injured a Brooklyn man early yesterday amid increased scrutiny of police shootings since an encounter with undercover officers in Queens left one man dead.
Even as critics persisted in questioning the department’s undercover operations, Commissioner Raymond Kelly said yesterday there was no immediate plan for “significant change” of the police department’s undercover guidelines. He said a committee of ranking police officials charged with examining such operations had already convened once, and will continue to gather evidence.
Appearing with the police commissioner at a news conference at City Hall, Mayor Bloomberg addressed calls for Mr. Kelly’s resignation in the wake of the shooting. “Ray Kelly will be police commissioner as long as I’m in office,” Mr. Bloomberg said.
The most recent shooting occurred at about 1:30 a.m. Uniformed officers in East New York heard six shots fired and subsequently encountered a man they said had a gun near the intersection of Autumn and Loring avenues. Police said the suspect, identified as Richard Davenport, shot at officers, prompting one to fire back.
Police said Davenport fled into the nearby Louis Pink Public Housing Development, where he aimed his gun at two additional officers, prompting one to shoot. Davenport was struck once in the left arm and taken to Brookdale Hospital in stable condition. He was later charged with attempted murder, criminal possession of a weapon, menacing, and attempted aggravated assault on a police officer.
Critics immediately rallied against police, a development likely linked to the fatal shooting of Sean Bell on November 25 in a hail of 50 police bullets. “Every police shooting now is going to be under scrutiny because of the distrust of the police department in our community,” City Council Member Charles Barron said.
In a separate incident, a witness to Bell’s shooting who has been cooperating with the investigation was arrested, his attorney, Charles King, said. Mr. King said his client was apprehended at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday in Midtown Manhattan, and was charged with disorderly conduct. The witness was released at about 2 p.m. yesterday after prosecutors declined to prosecute the case for lack of evidence, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney said.
However, Mr. King said he was unable to obtain information about his client from police for nearly 12 hours after his arrest. Although he said he does not believe the arresting officers immediately recognized his client, police officials should have been told about the arrest once his identity was disclosed. Such actions could turn away potential witnesses and “raises the specter of undermining the Queens district attorney to adequately investigate the shooting in a fair and impartial manner,” he said.