Online News From The Tribeca Trib

Shooting at City Hall

by Ronald Drenger

The City Hall area was turned into an armed camp Wednesday, July 23, following the shooting of Councilman James Davis in the City Council chamber. Police cars lined Broadway, Chambers Street and Park Row around City Hall, hundreds of officers stood on the sidewalks and heavily armed police in riot gear roamed the building’s perimeter. Chambers Street between Broadway and Centre Street was closed to traffic, the Brooklyn Bridge was shut down and several nearby subway stations were closed for about an hour.

Before Davis’ death was announced, several council members stood among crowds on Broadway outside the gates of City Hall Park, seeking information about the councilman’s condition and describing to reporters what they had experienced inside the council chamber just after 2 p.m.

“They were about to call attendance, I was reading the agenda, and all of a sudden, I heard several pops,” said Councilman John Liu of Queens. “I looked up and saw three officers in front of me firing up into the balcony. But I didn’t see anything in the balcony. I didn’t see the gunman.”

“I heard shots coming from the balcony,” recalled Councilman Kiram Monserrate, also of Queens. “It was a handgun of some type. I wasn’t sure exactly where it was coming from. It was scary, I didn’t know how many of them there were, how many people were shooting. People were screaming, ‘Get down! Get down!’ A few moments later, I heard, ‘Everyone get out!’”

Monserrate estimated that “over a dozen shots were fired,” and Liu said he heard “a minimum of 10 shots.”

“It was a harrowing experience,” said Monserrate. “There was panic, pandemonium, fear. Everything that you would imagine.”

“We were instructed to leave the chambers and we went downstairs,” Liu said. “While I was going downstairs I saw officers with their guns drawn running up the stairs. We retreated to the members’ lounge, and then we were instructed to get out of the building.

With reports that the gunman was on the loose, fear spread well beyond City Hall. Several blocks down Chambers Street, at the Downtown Day Camp at P.S. 234, the camp administrators were flooded with calls from frightened parents. “I told them the kids were all there and they were safe,” said the camp’s director, Bob Townley. Nevertheless, Townley cancelled a camp party scheduled for that night on Pier 25.

Councilman Alan Gerson, who represents Lower Manhattan, had been in City Hall earlier in the afternoon but was a couple of blocks away when the shooting occurred.

“I was preparing to go back for the meeting when I got a call from Dirk McCall,” Gerson said, referring to his chief of staff.

During a brief phone interview before he attended a special meeting of council members, Gerson received two other calls from people trying to find out if he and his staff were alright, and he said he had fielded a flood of such calls in the nearly two hours since the shooting.

Gerson called Davis “a friend and colleague,” and said he was shaken by his death.

“The last offical business that I did earlier today, I attended a press conference with four colleagues, including Councilman Davis,” Gerson said.

“It’s just incredible,” he said of the shooting. “It’s tough to even think this through rationally.”

The gunman was identified as Othniel Askew, 31, of Brooklyn, a former political opponent of Davis's. Askew was shot and killed by Richard Burt, a police officer stationed on the council floor. Both Davis and his assailent were prounounced dead at NYU Downtown Hospital, a couple of blocks from City Hall.

Mayor Bloomberg praised Burt’s actions.

“As someone who was in City Hall at the time, I would like to personally thank him for putting himself in harm's way to protect the rest of us,” Bloomberg said. “I have always thought of Officer Burt as a friendly guy who was doing a tough job; now I will think of him as a hero.