The following are Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s remarks as delivered at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens this morning, following the shooting of an NYPD Officer:
“I’m here tonight with Police Commissioner Kelly, District Attorney Richard Brown, Chief of Internal Affairs Charles Campisi, Chief James Secreto is the CO of Queens South, Deputy Chief of Queens South Detective Louis Croce, Chief Philip Banks of Community Affairs, Chief Diana Pizzuti who is CO of Queens North, Dr. Eli Kleinman who is the Chief Surgeon of the NYPD, and Chief Terry Shortell, the head of the gang division.
“Here we are once again at a hospital – this great, it’s the great Jamaica Hospital. Another night, and another shooting of one of our Finest.
“Commissioner Kelly and I just visited with Sergeant Craig Bier, a highly decorated 15-year veteran of the department, who was shot tonight while keeping the rest of us safe. Thank God Sergeant Bier’s injuries are non-life threatening. He is alert and in remarkably good spirits.
“The Commissioner and I also spoke with his father Richard Bier, who is a retired NYPD detective, and his stepmother.
“Commissioner Kelly will provide you with more details, but in short this officer, the sergeant, is part of an anti-gang unit that was operating in South Jamaica when he and his partner, Detective Nick Romano, attempted to stop an individual and the individual fled. They pursued the suspect and Sergeant Bier exchanged gunfire with the suspect and Sergeant Bier was struck in both legs.
“A first-year member of the Department came to Sergeant Bier’s aide, and quickly applied pressure to his wounds to prevent any serious damage. And after an intense search, we have a suspect in custody.
“I’ll let Commissioner Kelly go through the exact details, but I think what is clear, this is the tenth member of the department shot this year. No fatalities since Peter Figoski was killed last December. If you remember, Officer Figoski was brought here to Jamaica Hospital.
“Only one month ago, the Commissioner and I visited Officer Brian Groves, another police officer, after he was shot. Between then and now we have had two mass shootings in this country. Thirty-four people are being murdered in this country every single day with illegal firearms, and I think it’s fair to say we are still waiting for the leaders of our country and those who want to be the leaders of our country to stand up and tell us what they’re going to do about this.
“In the next four years, 48,000 Americans are going to die from illegal guns – being murdered by illegal guns – and we just have to find a way to stop this. We all know that also included in those people, unfortunately, are likely to be people that are members of our families, our friends or a police officer who puts their life on the line to protect us.
(YWN Desk – NYC)
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2 Responses
And once again, Bloomberg takes advantage of this potential tragedy of pushing his liberal agenda of guns are bad, Guns kill people, etc… Mr. Mayor, focus on getting the illegal guns off the street, stopping the illlegal guns being illegally transferred by “straw buyers” and leave the law abiding citizens alone and allow them to LEGALLY carry firearms. Crime will drop drastically citywide. REMEMBER, GUNS DON’T KILL PEOPLE, PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE!!!!
I believe you’ve made an inaccurate statement. That is, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Well, I will prove you incorrect right now. People kill people with GUNS. Often times on purpose and occasionally by accident. People without guns can still kill others, but this task would be much more difficult to accomplish. I for one would rather be beaten than shot with a high powered gun or even a low powered gun. Mayor Bloomberg is 100% spot on with his comments. And after someone gets shot, it’s the perfect time to get his cause out to the public about the dangers of guns. After Bloomberg leaves office, I don’t think NYC will be as good as it’s been for the past several years. The guy is incredibly intelligent and has made NYC a better place to live, even despite the worst economic conditions in a generation nationwide.