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Queens Shooting: Videos from Air Train Station
By
Jen Chung
Published Dec 15, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Dec 15, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Yesterday, Democracy Now.org showed footage taken from the Air Train station near the club in Jamaica, Queens where Sean Bell and his two friends were shot by police. And the video (link to download MP3) is bananas. One video shows a bullet coming into the station and barely missing a man. Another video shows two Port Authority police officers ducking from the bullets and running. The Daily News' Juan Gonzalez, who co-hosts Democracy Now, explained the tape:
JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, I think one of the things it shows, number one, is that there were a lot more people in danger that night by this shooting, the 50-shot barrage of the police officers at the scene, five cops at the scene, plainclothes and undercover. There had been a report that there had been at least one errant bullet, and I think Graham Weatherspoon -- he was on this show also -- talked about one that went into a home and hit a lamp. But it turns out that this particular bullet that went to the Air Train, which was --
AMY GOODMAN: And this is the train to the plane, to Kennedy Airport.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Yes, the Port Authority’s train to the plane. And the Jamaica station is right down Liverpool Street, where the shooting occurred about half a block away from the shooting. And also, it’s an elevated station, so these bullets had to travel from the ground up, considerably up, in the air to reach the platform of the elevated station.
And the video that was made available to me by a source shows there’s a Port Authority police -- two cameras. And it shows, as we saw in the video, that one elderly gentleman with his luggage was -- the bullet almost hit him in the head, because you actually see the trail of the bullet shattering the glass and right at the eye level of the man, right in front of him. And he drops his luggage and runs. And the two Port Authority police nearby scampered away. One actually has filed for a line-of-duty injury.
This comes as some critics claim the polices at the undercover operation during November 25 were not properly trained to use their firearms.
Today, Gonzalez's Daily News column features an interview with the supposed "fourth man," Jean Nelson, who says, "The man with the gun never yelled 'police.'"
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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