Port Jervis (Orange) EDP w/Grenade at Hospital 12-14-07

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Date: December 14, 2007

Time:18:50hrs

Location: Bon Secours Hospital City of Port Jervis

Frequency:

Units Operating: Port Jervis City Police. Orange Co. Sheriffs, Orange Co. Sheriffs K-9, Town of Deerpark Police, NYSP and Bomb squads from the Orange County Sheriff's office and New York State Police.

Description Of Incident: Man with grenade shot, killed by cops

Writer: ace84

Police shoot man with grenade at Bon Secours Hospital

December 14, 2007

7:50 - PORT JERVIS — A man, apparently armed with a hand grenade, confronted PJ police this afternoon shortly after 5 p.m. just outside Bon Secours Hospital. Police said they were forced to shoot him.

The man, a Pennsylvania resident in his 60's, who was shot after an exchange of words with police, is believed to be dead. But police had to surround the hospital and keep passers-by away as they tried to determine if there is any further danger from the grenade.

Police said that they had received a phone call at 4:44 p.m. warning them that a distraught man was heading to the hospital.

There were no other injuries and patients remained in the hospital as police interviewed witnesses and investigated the event.

Police have not yet positively identified the man.

Bomb squads from the Orange County Sheriff's office and New York State Police are attempting to determine if the device, still on the scene, poses a threat.

No other information is available at this time.

December 15, 2007

PORT JERVIS — A distraught man armed with a grenade confronted police near Bon Secours Community Hospital yesterday, authorities said, provoking officers to shoot him.

Police expected to still be working on the case this morning, collecting evidence, nailing down whether the grenade was live and trying to find out what prompted the deadly face-off.

No one else was hurt.

It was the first police-involved shooting in nearly 25 years in this placid former railroad hub of 9,200 people on the Delaware River, said Chief William Worden, a Port Jervis native who became chief five months ago.

“All police officers are charged with protecting the public and are forced to confront difficult, deadly situations,” he said late last night, his eyes tinged red from stress and fatigue. “My officers were thrust into a situation with very few options, and I stand by my officers. I’m confident that a thorough investigation will show that their actions saved lives tonight.”

The disturbed man wasn’t immediately identified late last night. Worden said the man was from Pennsylvania and that police withheld his name for the first few hours after the shooting at the request of his family, because some of his relatives couldn’t immediately be found.

Police got a phone call at about 4:45 p.m. yesterday, warning them that the man, who was about 65, might be on his way to the hospital. The caller, who wasn’t identified, told officers that the man had been threatening to harm himself and others.

Two officers went to the front of the hospital to look for the man, while two others turned down Skinner Street, a side street off East Main, and headed toward the back parking lot. They were confronted there by the man who was armed with a grenade.

He exchanged words with the officers. He appeared to be ready to set off the grenade. So the officers fired. Worden declined to say yesterday how many shots were fired or how many struck the man with the grenade. But when he dropped, the grenade landed near his body, leaving police to figure out how to disarm it.

Bon Secours immediately diverted incoming patients to other hospitals and restricted access to the building. It remained that way for several hours, until a state police bomb squad secured the grenade and removed it from the crime scene.

Worden praised hospital workers for their reaction under pressure, saying, “They operated professionally and ensured that the patients in the hospital were safe and secure, and that their treatment was uninterrupted, throughout the investigation.”

The four officers who responded to the hospital have been placed on leave, a standard precaution to allow them to decompress from the strain of the shooting. Worden said all four are veterans of the department. He declined to identify them.

He took pains to thank state troopers, Town of Deerpark police and Orange County sheriff’s deputies for rushing to Port Jervis’ aid by helping handle traffic around the hospital and answer calls in the city while Port Jervis officers were tied up with the investigation and the aftermath of the shooting.

District Attorney Frank Phillips said a grand jury will hear testimony about the incident, which is routine for police-involved shootings in Orange County.

Yesterday’s shooting was the first of its kind in Port Jervis since Jan. 6, 1983, when a city detective shot a fugitive sex offender who aimed his rifle at another Port Jervis officer during a chase.

Reporter Heather Yakin contributed to this story.