[kellyhound]

For two days, beat officers across New York City were on the lookout for a man believed to be the person who had swung a hammer, apparently at random, at the heads of park-goers and others around Manhattan.

Every officer at every roll call had seen a photo of the wanted man, a 30-year-old drifter with a history of arrests and severe mental illness. They hoped to catch him before another attack.

On Wednesday, two officers spotted the man in Midtown. He could be the hammer attacker, but they wanted to speak with him to be sure. The man, identified by the police as David Baril, saw them, too.

He stopped at the corner of Eighth Avenue and 37th Street, and as the officers closed in, he pulled a hammer, red with the dried blood of previous attacks, police officials said. He began swinging wildly at one of the officers, Lauren O’Rourke, 27, striking her as she backpedaled.

As they spilled into the intersection, her partner, Officer Geraldo Casaigne, drew his gun and fired four times, hitting Mr. Baril in the right arm, the torso and the “head area,”.

He was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center, where he was in critical condition on Wednesday evening.

“Fortunately, thank God, both officers are fine and this individual is not going to be roaming the streets of New York attacking innocents any longer,” Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said.

At a time of intense national scrutiny of police shootings, the gunfire in a crowded, gritty stretch of Midtown just after the morning rush on Wednesday provided a stark illustration of the dangers that officers can face and the split-second decisions they must make.

[Pyramid_Head]

Good, fucker attacking random people with a hammer belongs in the ground.

[Mufasa7]

whatever happened to due process

[spudigitti]

[AceGoober]

Due process is someone disabling the suspect while he is beating you about the head with a hammer.

Or, would you just want to keep getting hit while everyone yells at him to stop but do nothing to stop the beating?

Originally Posted by Mufasa7 ↗

whatever happened to due process

[Dennislp3]

Originally Posted by Mufasa7 ↗

whatever happened to due process

You are retarded...just sayin

[flyflicker123]

Originally Posted by Mufasa7 ↗

whatever happened to due process

r u stupid?

[destroom101]

Due process has no application during a crime in progress. The stopping of a threat is not a taking of ones liberty, and thus not an issue of due process.

You are an idiot if you think the cop was not right to gun this fucker down in the street. I know someone who was killed with one hammer blow to the head. this prick had to be shot to be stopped.

[LadyCPlum]

Originally Posted by Mufasa7 ↗

whatever happened to due process

Screw due process, what if that maniac had brought that hammer down on a toddler's head

[snookiea]

Originally Posted by destroom101 ↗

Due process has no application during a crime in progress. The stopping of a threat is not a taking of ones liberty, and thus not an issue of due process.

You are an idiot if you think the cop was not right to gun this fucker down in the street. I know someone who was killed with one hammer blow to the head. this prick had to be shot to be stopped.

Knew. You knew someone who was killed. Just sayin....