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Welcome To NYC: Cop Accidentally Shot Japanese Tourist
By
Ben Yakas
Published Mar 30, 2012
Modified Oct 12, 2017
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Mar 30, 2012
Modified Oct 12, 2017
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Early yesterday morning, it was reported that an NYPD officer accidentally shot a woman in the downstairs Brooklyn apartment where a drug raid had been going on. It turns out that plainclothes narcotics Officer Mosquera Washington had accidentally grazed a 25-year-old Japanese tourist who was sleeping on a couch in the apartment below. “I heard a bang and jumped up. She didn’t say anything. She was kind of nervous and shocked,” the tourist's friend, Marcus, told the Post. “The only thing I know is that there’s a bullet hole in my ceiling.” This never would have happened if she were sleeping in a Farbman.
The raid took place just after 6 a.m. on Clarendon Road in Flatbush. The officers raided the third-floor apartment of 28-year-old drug suspect Ernesto Ortiz, who was lying on a bed next to girlfriend Chanel Spence. There are conflicting reports about how the officer's gun went off: a source told the Daily News, “There was a struggle between an officer and the suspect. The officer’s gun accidentally discharged one round.” But the Wall Street Journal claims that the officer had his gun drawn when he entered the apartment, and it just fired accidentally.
The bullet went through the floor and grazed the sleeping tourist in her left arm. The tourist, whose name was withheld, was taken to King's County hospital, but did not require stitches. According to the Times, she had arrived with a friend a few days earlier to meet up with a man they had met when he was a Marine stationed in their country. When she was in the hospital, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly visited her and gave her a blue, green and white scarf—he also arranged transportation so the three could fly out to Barbados Thursday afternoon as they had planned.
Ortiz, who had been arrested 25 times before, was arrested on various charges; Spence was also arrested. Natasha Burnett, who told the Journal he is the father of her two children, described Ortiz as a “ladies’ man” and a “heart-breaker” but denied that he sold drugs.
Tagged
brooklyn
cops
farbman
flatbush
japanese tourist
nypd
police
shooting
tourists
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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