NYPD’s Ray Kelly says illegal guns have turned city into shooting gallery

Brooklyn man had an illegally purchased armor piercing sawn off rifle and plenty of ammunition

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Commissioner Ray Kelly

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Following the shooting of four New York police officers in Brooklyn on Easter Sunday morning Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has decried the plague of illegal firearms on the streets of the New York City.

Speaking to the press Kelly said “These are the guns that are turning our city into a shooting gallery. We had three cops shot last year. This year we’ve had eight shot already, and it’s only Easter.”

Kelly was speaking to the press after a shootout between police and a Brooklyn man who allegedly was holding a pregnant woman and child hostage. He shot four Emergency Service Unit policemen.

Two of the officers were hit in the leg and others were grazed. Those injured in the shooting included Detective Michael Keenan (52), Detective Kenneth Ayala (49), Police Officer Matthew Granahan (35), and Captain Al Pizzano (45).

Kelly continued “Here is the thing about old guns. They can be around a very long time, and then you load them and pull the trigger and they still work, against a cop or anybody else.”

The incident on Sunday could have been far worse for the officers involved considering the type of ammo Foxworth had stocked up. Thankfully he was critically wounded before he could reach for his rifle.

Kelly told the Daily News on Monday “Foxworth was shot before he could reach for his sawed-off assault rifle. And a good thing, too. It was loaded with 20 .223-caliber bullets, the kind the military uses.”

“He could have done a lot more damage with an assault weapon he had no business possessing.”

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said an additional 30 .223-caliber bullets were found in the apartment. He explained that technically these bullets are designed to be “armor piercing” and would have cut through the shields.

He said “That would have been problematic, to say the least.”

The Commissioner called Foxworth a “very bad dude”. He also defended the NYPD’s policy of “stop and frisk”, which allows police to stop and search pedestrians who seem suspicious.

He told the New York Daily News “There’s a reason why we continue to be proactive on the street.”

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said “Every one of the criminals who has shot at our police officers possessed his gun illegally. And make no mistake: It will happen again — and again — until those in Washington stop cowering before the gun lobby.”

He said the background check system to purchase weapons is broken.

“Federal law says that criminals cannot buy or possess guns — but they do, every day. And Washington just stands by as thousands of innocent Americans — and police officers — meet their death.”

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