The New York Police Department is under fire after a video of an officer-involved shooting went viral on Tuesday (June 2). The words "19 Times" began to trend on Twitter as people were outraged that a person was killed by police during a standoff and suffered 19 shots. Initially, people were tweeting that the alleged victim in the shooting was a 13-year-old boy, but reports later stated that it was a 34-year-old man.
According to the NY Daily News, the shooting had nothing to do with the protests going on in the city. Police responded to reports of shots fired in Brooklyn, and when police made their way to the area, they found a man who had been shot. Police immediately began searching for the gunman and according to NBC New York, they found the 34-year-old ex-convict hiding behind a fence. He was armed and had a stand-off with the police. Nearby residents streamed the altercation live and in the video, police can be heard shouting for the gunman to drop his weapon. Then, a barrage of bullets was unleashed.
Online reports made their way through social media quickly and people claimed that a 13-year-old had been killed, but multiple news outlets, along with Chief Terence Monahan, stated that isn't true. Even so, people are still condemning NYPD officers on the scene, as many as ten of them, accusing them of using excessive force. Check out the video and responses below.
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