NYC group protests police shooting of woman

When officers and the sergeant arrived, police said they found Danner in her bedroom holding a pair of scissors.

A New York City police sergeant fatally shot a 66-year-old woman who charged him with a baseball bat at her apartment on Tuesday, prompting an investigation that will look into why he did not use a Taser instead, an assistant police chief said.

"What is clear in this one instance, we failed". New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called the police-involved shooting "tragic" and said it "should not have happened". "It's as simple as that".

On scene police, including Sgt. Hugh Barry, entered Danner's apartment.

"She was standing there in that hallway, ready to go the hospital", de Blasio said, referring to the sister. Danner was shot twice in the torso and pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Chief of Investigations Division Jean T. Walsh will supervise and the Homicide Bureau will assist in the investigation, Clark said.

Barry had a stun gun but did not use it, NYPD said. Her essay alludes to the case of Eleanor Bumpurs, a Bronx woman killed in 1984 after waving a knife at officers during an eviction. Investigators will try to determine why Barry did not use the Taser he was equipped with.

Barry was placed on modified duty and stripped of his gun and shield, pending the outcome of the investigation, an NYPD spokesman said.

Nikunen didn't have details on the earlier incidents when police went to Danner's apartment.

Barry's disciplinary record was not immediately released, but court records show he was the subject of two civil rights lawsuits involving accusations of excessive force. The victim's sister, Jennifer Danner, was there.

"We need to know why this officer did not follow his training and did not follow those protocols", de Blasio said. "But why the rest of the protocol wasn't followed is what we don't understand".

O'Neill also talked about police training. Sharpton said Wednesday that comments by Police Commissioner James O'Neill were "good and responsible" but should be the beginning of "systemic change".

He said the department policy is to "isolate and contain".

"We extend our deepest condolences to Ms. Danner's family", Amy Spitalnick, the spokeswoman, said in a statement.

While Friedman said it's necessary to continue to improve training for all police officers on how to deal with an emotionally disturbed or psychotic person, he added that it may be better to have crisis teams specifically trained to effectively deal with the mentally ill.

When a reporter inquired why the mayor did not have the full details about the officer involved in the shooting, and why O'Neill was absent from at the briefing, de Blasio responded in his typically hostile manner.

The Bronx Borough president, Ruben Diaz Jr, a former state lawmaker, called the shooting an "outrage".

But the executive order signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo a year ago limited the attorney general's blanket appointment as a special prosecutor to "certain matters involving the death of an unarmed civilian".

A spokesman for the attorney general said his office was reviewing the fatal shooting.

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