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Pot Smoker Shoots Cop During Confrontation
By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 28, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 28, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Last night, police officer Rory Mangra (pictured) attempted to approach a man smoking pot in Prospect Heights, but the man ended up shooting him in the leg. Mangra and his partner, Eric Merizelde, both uniformed but driving in an unmarked car, saw Kingsley Newland light up outside a beauty parlor at Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street in Brooklyn. From the Daily News:
Mangra stepped out of the car to approach Newland, but the suspect fled, police said. Merizelde sped ahead in the car, hopped a sidewalk and tried to block the suspect's path.
Newland dived across the hood of the car in a bid to escape, but Mangra snatched him. That's when Newland allegedly grabbed a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol from the small of his back, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
Cops will do anything for a pot bust! Newland fired at Mangra, and then his gun jammed. Newland allegedly told the police,"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shoot him." Yeah, he was probably just trying to take his gun out to show the cops, and his trigger finger "slipped - a likely story!
Commissioner Kelly and Mayor Bloomberg were at Methodist Hospital, where Mangra is recovering. Bloomberg said, "Here we are again - another night, another hospital and another member of New York's Finest shot with what appears to be an illegal gun." Kelly emphasized the dangers cops have been facing lately, "In the last few weeks, we have had officers thrown through a plate-glass window, stabbed through the skull, shot in the ankle and stomach, and of course Auxiliary Police Officers Nicholas Pekearo and Eugene Marshalik were murdered. At the same time that crime continues to plummet, our police officers keep encountering suspects who would rather fight than be taken into custody."
Tagged
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brooklyn
commissioner kelly
crime
daily news
Dean Street
Eugene Marshalik
flatbush avenue
gun
heights
hospital
mayor
mayor bloomberg
methodist hospital
new york
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Nicholas Pekearo
police
police commissioner
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly
police officers
prospect heights
shooting
smoking
The Police
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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