Woman Armed with Baseball Bat Shot Dead by NYPD Officer

An emergency call on a domestic disturbance turned deadly on Tuesday. A New York police sergeant is under investigation for fatally shooting a 66-year old woman who assaulted the officer with a baseball bat. According to an assistant police chief, they are looking for a justification why the officer chose to shoot the woman instead of tasing her.

The latest shooting incident of the elderly woman initiated another intensified scrutiny over the entire law enforcement establishment in the United States. Citizens are concerned about police authorities using excessive force against the minorities and the mentally ill.

Domestic Disturbance Call

According to the New York Police Assistant Chief, Larry Nikunen, the police received an emergency call about an emotionally disturbed person in an apartment in the Bronx. The woman’s neighbor called the police complaining that the woman is acting irrationally.

In a news conference, Nikunen recalled the series of events that took place prior to the shooting. He said that the woman was clutching scissors when the sergeant entered the bedroom. The officer persuaded the woman to put the scissors down. However, she suddenly charged the officer while picking up a baseball bat.

Nikunen said during the conference, “As she attempted to strike the sergeant he fired two shots from his service revolver, striking her in the torso”. He also added that the NYPD is investigating the reason as for why the sergeant did not use a Taser instead of opening fire to the rushing woman.

Doctors pronounced the woman dead at the hospital. Authorities did not mention the identity and race of both the police officer and woman.

Ruben Diaz Jr., the Bronx President considered the incident as an “outrage” because of the shooting of a “mentally disturbed” person. The former state lawmaker requested the state attorney general for an investigation regarding the shooting.

Regular occurrence

This is not the first time that the police was called in for the same domestic disturbance call. Diaz said, “This elderly woman was known to the police department, yet the officer involved in this shooting failed to use discretion to either talk her down from her episode or, barring that, to use his stun gun.” He then added, “That is totally unacceptable.”

Last month, a similar occurrence generated scrutiny when an officer in El Cajon responded to a call on a mentally disturbed man. The police shot the man who pointed an object directly to the officer that turns out to be a vaping device.

As of late Tuesday, no statement was released by a lawyer from the New York Police Officer’s union.

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911 Operator Caught Hanging Up Prematurely On Callers

A 911 operator, Crenshanda Williams, has been indicted of deliberately hanging up on callers during emergencies merely because she was not in the mood to help. She has been charged with interference with an emergency telephone call, according to Houston police.

Since July 2014, Williams has been working as a telecommunicator with the Houston Emergency Center. Recently, her supervisors started to see that her logs showed an unusually high volume of short calls, with a length of less than 20 seconds.

Supervisors investigated the recorded call logs, and found that Williams, between Oct. 2015 and March 2016, had disconnected thousands of calls.

Two of the calls were regarding speeding vehicles and at least one was for a robbery and homicide.

On March 12, specifically, Williams hung up on a number of callers. The first call was terminated right away after she picked it up.

During the second call, an operator — identified as Williams — is heard replying “Houston 911, do you need medical, police or fire?”

When the male caller responded, “This is a robbery,” Williams is heard sighing before hanging up, according to court documents.

Investigators traced down the caller, who confirmed someone hung up the phone the first time he called in. Frustrated, he had to call back a second time. Consequently, a person was dead by the time police arrived,.

No time for calls

The next day, Williams hung up on several more people, including a security officer who was trying to report a hazardous street racing incident, investigators said

The operator, again identified as Williams, said “Houston 911, do you need medical, police or fire?”

The caller only had time to utter, “This is Officer Molten. I’m driving on 45 South right now and I am at ……” before Williams terminated the call.

The recording captured Williams saying “Ain’t nobody got time for this. For Real,” although the call was disconnected.

The officer called in a second time, and another 911 operator picked up and assisted him. Investigators got in touch with the officer, who also verified the “hang up call” on that day.

Williams purportedly acknowledged to disconnecting the calls when interviewed by the police because she didn’t feel like talking to anyone at that time.

Williams’ actions interfered and prevented the callers’ capacity to ask for assistance during an emergency and charges were filed against her, investigators said.

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Obama Says Congress Veto of Saudi 9/11 Bill a Mistake

US President Barack Obama has said that congress made a mistake by overruling his veto on Wednesday and put into effect a bill that allows legal action versus Saudi Arabia over the 9/11 attacks.

Therefore, he said that the legislation set a dangerous precedent for individuals around the world to charge the US government.

“It’s a dangerous precedent and it’s an example of why sometimes you have to do what’s hard,” Mr. Obama told CNN on Wednesday. “And, frankly, I wish Congress here had done what’s hard.”

The Justice Against Sponsors to Terrorism, or JASTA bill, finally clears the way for victims to file lawsuits seeking damages from members of the Saudi government who may have played a part in the attacks.

The oil-rich nation has denied any role in the attacks. Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers, however, were Saudi nationals.

Obama contended that putting the bill into law would be harmful to US interests. If other countries passed a similar legislation, US officials, troops and companies may be exposed.

The European Union and other US allies have opposed the bill. Dow Chemical and General Electric also contested it.

Government officials including Secretary of Defense Ash Carter disputed the bill. CIA Director John Brennan said that the bill held “grave implications” for national security.

Political considerations vs “doing the right thing”

The US president also suggested that political considerations were behind the vote.

“If you’re perceived as voting against 9/11 families right before an election, not surprisingly, that’s a hard vote for people to take.” he said on CNN. “But it would have been the right thing to do.”

Obama’s ardent Democratic supporters in congress managed to uphold all prior 11 vetoes. However, most of them linked up with Republicans to oppose him before going on the campaign trail for the November 8 elections.

The Senate voted against the veto 97-1 after the House of Representatives disapproved it 348-77.

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