Multiple people shot near Empire State Building
Updated at 11:16 p.m. ET
(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - A man laid off about a year ago went to his former workplace Friday morning and shot a co-worker in the face, killing him, before a shootout broke out between him and New York police officers near the Empire State Building, injuring nine, the police said.
The gunman was shot and killed by two officers. New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said during a Friday news conference that the people wounded in the shootout suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Some of those injured may have been accidentally shot by the officers, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
"This is a terrible tragedy, and there's no doubt that the situation would have been even more tragic but for some extraordinary acts of heroism," Bloomberg said.
Video: Watch Bloomberg and Kelly brief reporters on the shooting
Kelly identified the gunman as Jeffrey Johnson, who was laid off as a designer of women's accessories from Hazan Import after working there for six years. Kelly also said Johnson was 53 but later corrected himself, saying Johnson was actually 58, CBS station WCBS-TV reports.
Kelly only identified the co-worker as a 41-year-old man. CBS News has confirmed that the victim is Steven Ercolino.
Watch surveillance video released by the NYPD showing the suspected gunman in the shooting, Jeffrey Johnson, being shot by police. (Warning: very graphic footage):
Report: Steven Ercolino was victim in NYC shooting
Ercolino's profile on the business networking site LinkedIn identified him as a vice president of sales at Hazan Import. It said he was a graduate of the State University of New York at Oneonta.
He had recently moved to New Jersey after living for a time in Warwick, just north of New York City, said his eldest brother, Paul Ercolino. He grew up in Nanuet, N.Y.
"He was in the prime of his life," Paul Ercolino said. His brother was a gregarious salesman -- known to nieces and nephews as "Uncle Ducky" because of his nearly blond hair -- who had followed his father into the garment industry, then later worked in women's handbags and accessories.
He never mentioned to the family that he had any problems with a co-worker, Paul Ercolino said.
Hazan Import Corp. imports women's clothing and accessories, according to public records. Calls to its executives weren't immediately returned
A photo of Steven Ercolino, who was killed in a shooting at the Empire State Building, Aug. 24, 2012.
/ Personal Photo
Even after he was laid off, Johnson would leave his Upper East Side apartment building each morning in a suit, and often returned about a half hour later after going to get breakfast at McDonald's, his neighbors said.
"He was always alone," said Gisela Casella, who lived a few floors above him. "I always felt bad. I said, `Doesn't he have a girlfriend?' I never saw him with anybody."
Internet records list him as administrator of the website for a business called St. Jolly's Art, which sold iron-on art for R-shirts, including stylized drawings of fighter planes, muscle cars and ships.
Johnson was also part of a community of bird watchers and photographers who document hawks and other wildlife living in Central Park, a few blocks from his home. In an email to another bird watcher, who works at The Associated Press, Johnson wrote tenderly about spending a winter night watching ducks in the park.
"Near midnight by the Harlem Meer I watched a little `flotilla' of Mallards swimming and softly honking ...fifteen degree temp and they were carrying on unfazed. Just remarkable," he wrote.
CBS News senior correspondent John Miller reports that Johnson and the victim had each filed harassment complaints against each other during the past year. It's unclear whether those complaints were filed with police or in civil court. Johnson has no criminal record, police told WCBS-TV.
Wearing a suit and tie and carrying a briefcase, women's accessories designer Jeffrey Johnson walked up to the import company vice president, Steven Ercolino, put a gun to his head and fired five times without saying a word, authorities said.
A witness told investigators that Johnson shot Ercolino once in the head and, after he fell to the sidewalk, stood over him and shot him again. The gunman walked away and calmly turned up 5th Avenue, where he blended in with the crowd, police said.
"Jeffrey just came from behind two cars, pulled out his gun, put it up to Steve's head and shot him," Carol Timan, whose daughter, Irene, was walking to Hazan Imports at the time with Ercolino, told The Associated Press.
With his .45 caliber handgun hidden in black bag, Johnson fled, Kelly said. A construction worker who saw the shooting followed Johnson and alerted two police officers, a detail regularly assigned to patrol city landmarks like the 1,454-foot skyscraper since the 9/11 terror attacks, officials said.
Police released dramatic surveillance video that showed the confrontation lasted only a few seconds. Johnson was walking rapidly down the street trailed by two police officers when he stopped, wheeled around and pulled out a gun.
About a dozen people ran for their lives, including two small children who were just feet away from Johnson. He pointed the gun at the officers, who quickly fired at him.
Johnson dropped his briefcase, fell to his knees and then collapsed on the ground.
The bystanders likely were hit by police officers' stray gunfire, some of it bullets that rebounded off planters in front of the skyscraper and grazed pedestrians.
The two officers fired 16 shots. The surveillance video shows Johnson pointing his weapon at police, but it's likely he did not get a chance to fire, investigators said.
"These officers ... had absolutely no choice," Kelly said. "This individual took a gun out very close to them and perhaps fired at them."
Watch a video below of a witness account of the shooting's aftermath:
Kelly said police may be responsible for some of the injuries because of the limited capacity of the gunman's weapon. Johnson's semi-automatic weapon was equipped to fire at least eight rounds; at least one round was left in the clip, police said. Another loaded magazine was in his briefcase.
Johnson legally bought the gun in Sarasota, Fla., in 1991, but he didn't have a required permit to possess the weapon in New York City, police said.
"New York City, as you know, is the safest big city in the country, and we are on pace to have a record low number of murders this year," Bloomberg said. "But we are not immune to the national problem of gun violence," he said about the shooting, which comes in the wake of mass shootings inside a Colorado movie theater and a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.
"People were yelling 'Get down! Get down!", said Marc Engel, an accountant who was on a bus in the area when he heard the shots. "It took about 15 seconds, a lot of pop, pop, pop, pop, one shot after the other."
Afterward, he saw the sidewalks littered with the wounded, including one person "dripping enough blood to leave a stream."
Some of the victims were reportedly found inside the lobby of the Empire State Building while some were found on the street.
The FBI said that there is "no initial connection to terrorism."
Witnesses described a chaotic scene.
"I was sitting outside, and I heard three shots first and I saw three people running up to Park Avenue way from the Empire State Building," one woman told WCBS-TV. "Then we heard it again and it was like 10 to 15 shots at one time. Then we saw the whole block, like over 50 people running to Park Avenue."
"I was pulling some boxes out of my truck and right in front of my truck I heard about five gunshots," another witness told CBS station WINS-AM. "I turned around to the left and I saw a man lying vertically with blood coming out of his head."
"I just asked one of the folks who was running by me what had happened and they said 'someone was shot,'" Sid Dinsay, a former New York City Office of Emergency Management official, told CBS station WCBS-AM. "Take a few more steps down the block and there was a deceased person on the sidewalk, apparently the victim of gunshots and lifeless and just lying there."
Witness Joseph Cohen told "CBS Evening News that he was yards away. "I never thought in my life I'd actually ever witness an actual gunshot," he said. "But when I started hearing multiple shots i knew at that point I needed to run somewhere and in the direction that I was running was actually towards the scene, as opposed to away from the scene."
Friday's shooting is the third high-profile gun incident of the summer, following the July 20 massacre at a Denver-area movie theater that killed 12 people and injured 58 others, and a mass shooting at a Wisconsin Sikh temple Aug. 5 that left seven people dead, including the gunman with ties to a white supremacist group.
Shooting near Empire State Building (GRAPHIC IMAGES)
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The NRA suggests that if you don't like crazy people buying semi automatic guns and shooting at you, go out and spend thousands of dollars and arm yourself with the latest high powered semi automatic guns and rifles.... along with thousands of rounds of ammo...and bullet resistant clothing, too.
(Your family will understand why it's more important to spend thousands of dollars on weapons, bullets and armor than on food and rent)
Then the next time you have to go to your daughters kindergarten play, or to the theater, or restaurant, or to the heath club, the public pool, or to work....put on your bullet resistant helmet, vest, leggings and boots...load up your 4 or 5 automatic rifles and pistols....string several belts of ammo around your shoulder......and there you go: protection against all those crazy people, terrorists and hate groups who just bought their guns from the local Walmart.
*facepalm*
The NRA suggests that if you don't like crazy people buying semi automatic guns and shooting at you, go out and spend thousands of dollars and arm yourself with the latest high powered semi automatic guns and rifles.... along with thousands of rounds of ammo...and bullet resistant clothing, too.
(Your family will understand why it's more important to spend thousands of dollars on weapons, bullets and armor than on food and rent)
Then the next time you have to go to your daughters kindergarten play, or to the theater, or restaurant, or to the heath club, the public pool, or to work....put on your bullet resistant helmet, vest, leggings and boots...load up your 4 or 5 automatic rifles and pistols....string several belts of ammo around your shoulder......and you are ready to go.
Okay. Let's deconstruct this mess right here. The shooter fired once and walked away. The police confronted him, he pulled his weapon, the POLICE - trained and skilled in handling firearms - shot him and EIGHT OTHER BYSTANDERS.
So please, enlighten us with how much better it would have been if EVERY SINGLE PERSON ON THAT STREET HAD HAD A GUN AS WELL.
Jesus. I weep for this nation.
"Jesus. I weep for this nation."
Me too.
I'm glad to see there is someone else here with a brain and some common sense.
That is true. But if you are being confronted by someone wishing to do you harm, it is nice to be able to defend yourself.
The problem seems to be human nature. Always someone committing a violent act.
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Hey _7luckyseven,
The "...nice to be able to defend yourself... is not worth the huge cost and blood and fear society is paying.
An average bad person will shot you 1st period if he sees you reaching for something (your gun).
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Nope, party above common sense. blinded by the D's and R's.
by YourRearViewMirror1
Hey N3U120,
You have to separate Political Perception from Reality.
The Far-Right, especially the Tea Baggers, hate President Obama whom has signed 19 Tax Cuts. The Far-Right love Republican Ex-President Ronald Reagan whom signed 17 Tax Increases.
Now, can someone explain this logic to me?
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Obama is black, Reagan was white it can't get much simpler than that. That is what drive the hate coming from the right wing republiKLAN party.
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Hey GOP-R--Con-Men,
That logic makes sense. I hate Racist Conservatives!