John Hall
10-24-2003, 07:39 AM
Subject: Gidone Busch Case Against (Giuliani's) Police Is Bolstered
["Registration" is required to read New York Times articles online, but you can give any name you want...they just mine it for "aggregate marketing info". Article follows the link and is shared here.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/24/nyregion/24BUSC.html
Family's Case Against Police Is Bolstered
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
Published: October 24, 2003
When a city emergency medical technician pulled up in an ambulance on the Brooklyn
street where Gidone Busch had just been shot by the police in 1999, he asked a
group of officers if everyone was O.K., he testified yesterday. Yes, was the
answer from a police sergeant, except for a small bruise on the sergeant's arm, he
said. It was only then, the technician told the jury, that he noticed on his own
that someone was bleeding to death on the sidewalk.
The testimony of the technician and his partner yesterday was among the strongest
the Busch family's lawyers have presented to bolster their claims in the civil
suit against the city. They contend that the shooting was unjustified and that the
officers focused immediately afterward on inventing an account that would keep
investigators at bay.
On a good day for the family's lawyers, the trial yesterday also included a claim
by a civilian witness that one police officer worriedly shouted "What did I do?"
after Mr. Busch died. And after the judge allowed the city to call one of its
witnesses out of order, he ended up bolstering central elements of the family's
case.
The medical technician, Michael Sweeney, a New York City police officer who was
working a second job, said he and a partner answered a call to an address on 46th
Street in Borough Park on Aug. 30, 1999. They had been told they were needed to
help an emotionally disturbed person who was wielding a hammer. When Mr. Sweeney
saw the group of officers, he said he shouted, "Is everybody O.K.?" He said one
officer in the group, Sgt. Terrence O'Brien, answered, "He got me in the arm, but
I think I'm O.K."
None of the officers said anyone had been shot, Mr. Sweeney said, but he said that
he soon noticed the body nearby and rushed to get medical equipment. "I realized
he was in cardiac arrest and we had to move fast," he said.
Sergeant O'Brien, who has said he was injured by the hammer, is one of five
officers defending against the lawsuit, along with the city, in Brooklyn federal
court.
Mr. Sweeney's partner, Michael Esposito, another emergency medical technician,
also testified yesterday. He said that when their ambulance arrived, none of the
officers said anything. But he said he turned, saw yellow crime scene tape, "and
there was a body on the floor."
Another witness, Shimon Charach, a volunteer paramedic for a neighborhood corps,
told the jurors he was about 100 feet away at the time of the shooting. He said he
ran toward Mr. Busch's body and screamed "I'm an E.M.T.," but that officers
refused to let him get close.
Mr. Charach also said that shortly after the shooting, he was at nearby Maimonides
Medical Center, where some of the officers who were involved in the shooting were
taken. Mr. Charach, a 36-year-old teacher, said that at the hospital he saw a
group of officers in a receiving room. He said one of the officers was slumped
over and was holding a handgun by its barrel. He said that officer was saying:
"Oh, what did I do? What did I do?" Other officers surrounded him and and pulled
him into another room, Mr. Charach said.
The witness said he could not identify any of the officers he saw at the hospital
and acknowledged under cross-examination that he could not say what the officer in
the hospital was referring to.
By some accounts of the shooting, Mr. Busch was faced by officers with drawn guns
and one or two shots were fired. After a brief pause, by these accounts, other
shots were heard. Mr. Busch was shot 12 times, including in the lungs, liver,
heart and intestines.
The lawyers for the city were aggressive in cross-examining some of the family's
witnesses yesterday, but they stumbled with their own witness. Because of a
scheduling issue, the judge, Sterling Johnson Jr., permitted them to interrupt the
presentation by the family's lawyer, Myron Beldock, to call Lazar Eichenstein, a
27-year-old man from Borough Park, where Mr. Busch was living.
Mr. Eichenstein, who said he saw the shooting, quickly supplied the testimony the
city lawyers evidently wanted. "It looked like the police officers were afraid" of
Mr. Busch, he said, bolstering the city's argument that Mr. Busch was menacing
officers with the hammer and that they fired to save themselves.
But Mr. Eichenstein also gave the family's lawyers testimony to support their
claims of an unnecessary shooting. He said Mr. Busch was six to eight feet from
the officers when he was shot and was not moving toward them, as they have
claimed.
Mr. Eichenstein also said it seemed to be a long time before anyone arrived to
help Mr. Busch, who was bleeding on the sidewalk. "I was watching his shirt
getting red," he said. "More and more red."
["Registration" is required to read New York Times articles online, but you can give any name you want...they just mine it for "aggregate marketing info". Article follows the link and is shared here.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/24/nyregion/24BUSC.html
Family's Case Against Police Is Bolstered
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
Published: October 24, 2003
When a city emergency medical technician pulled up in an ambulance on the Brooklyn
street where Gidone Busch had just been shot by the police in 1999, he asked a
group of officers if everyone was O.K., he testified yesterday. Yes, was the
answer from a police sergeant, except for a small bruise on the sergeant's arm, he
said. It was only then, the technician told the jury, that he noticed on his own
that someone was bleeding to death on the sidewalk.
The testimony of the technician and his partner yesterday was among the strongest
the Busch family's lawyers have presented to bolster their claims in the civil
suit against the city. They contend that the shooting was unjustified and that the
officers focused immediately afterward on inventing an account that would keep
investigators at bay.
On a good day for the family's lawyers, the trial yesterday also included a claim
by a civilian witness that one police officer worriedly shouted "What did I do?"
after Mr. Busch died. And after the judge allowed the city to call one of its
witnesses out of order, he ended up bolstering central elements of the family's
case.
The medical technician, Michael Sweeney, a New York City police officer who was
working a second job, said he and a partner answered a call to an address on 46th
Street in Borough Park on Aug. 30, 1999. They had been told they were needed to
help an emotionally disturbed person who was wielding a hammer. When Mr. Sweeney
saw the group of officers, he said he shouted, "Is everybody O.K.?" He said one
officer in the group, Sgt. Terrence O'Brien, answered, "He got me in the arm, but
I think I'm O.K."
None of the officers said anyone had been shot, Mr. Sweeney said, but he said that
he soon noticed the body nearby and rushed to get medical equipment. "I realized
he was in cardiac arrest and we had to move fast," he said.
Sergeant O'Brien, who has said he was injured by the hammer, is one of five
officers defending against the lawsuit, along with the city, in Brooklyn federal
court.
Mr. Sweeney's partner, Michael Esposito, another emergency medical technician,
also testified yesterday. He said that when their ambulance arrived, none of the
officers said anything. But he said he turned, saw yellow crime scene tape, "and
there was a body on the floor."
Another witness, Shimon Charach, a volunteer paramedic for a neighborhood corps,
told the jurors he was about 100 feet away at the time of the shooting. He said he
ran toward Mr. Busch's body and screamed "I'm an E.M.T.," but that officers
refused to let him get close.
Mr. Charach also said that shortly after the shooting, he was at nearby Maimonides
Medical Center, where some of the officers who were involved in the shooting were
taken. Mr. Charach, a 36-year-old teacher, said that at the hospital he saw a
group of officers in a receiving room. He said one of the officers was slumped
over and was holding a handgun by its barrel. He said that officer was saying:
"Oh, what did I do? What did I do?" Other officers surrounded him and and pulled
him into another room, Mr. Charach said.
The witness said he could not identify any of the officers he saw at the hospital
and acknowledged under cross-examination that he could not say what the officer in
the hospital was referring to.
By some accounts of the shooting, Mr. Busch was faced by officers with drawn guns
and one or two shots were fired. After a brief pause, by these accounts, other
shots were heard. Mr. Busch was shot 12 times, including in the lungs, liver,
heart and intestines.
The lawyers for the city were aggressive in cross-examining some of the family's
witnesses yesterday, but they stumbled with their own witness. Because of a
scheduling issue, the judge, Sterling Johnson Jr., permitted them to interrupt the
presentation by the family's lawyer, Myron Beldock, to call Lazar Eichenstein, a
27-year-old man from Borough Park, where Mr. Busch was living.
Mr. Eichenstein, who said he saw the shooting, quickly supplied the testimony the
city lawyers evidently wanted. "It looked like the police officers were afraid" of
Mr. Busch, he said, bolstering the city's argument that Mr. Busch was menacing
officers with the hammer and that they fired to save themselves.
But Mr. Eichenstein also gave the family's lawyers testimony to support their
claims of an unnecessary shooting. He said Mr. Busch was six to eight feet from
the officers when he was shot and was not moving toward them, as they have
claimed.
Mr. Eichenstein also said it seemed to be a long time before anyone arrived to
help Mr. Busch, who was bleeding on the sidewalk. "I was watching his shirt
getting red," he said. "More and more red."