Man charged after cops shoot bystanders

Mike Gallagher

Dec 5, 2013 - 20:54

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The scene at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue after officers fired at a man who was darting in and out of traffic on Sept. 14.

AN UNARMED man who police opened fire on near Times Square in New York has been charged with assault for the bullets that hit bystanders.

Glenn Broadnax, 35, was reportedly charged with disturbance after throwing himself into the path of oncoming cars in September, The New York Times reports.

Police tried to stop him as a crowd grew but when he reached into his pants the two officers opened fire, missing Mr Broadnax but hitting two women nearby. The man was eventually brought down by another officer with a Taser.

The shootings by police is reminiscent of an incident at the Empire State Building a year ago in which police shot nine bystanders before they killed an armed suspect.

The Manhattan district attoey’s office persuaded a grand jury to charge Mr Broadnax with assault, which could see him locked away for 25 years, saying he had “recklessly engaged in conduct which created a grave risk of death.”

"The defendant is the one that created the situation that injured innocent bystanders," said an assistant district attoey, Shannon Lucey.

The two police officers who shot the women have not been identified but have been placed on administrative duty and are being investigated by the district attoey’s office.

Mr. Broadnax’s lawyer, Rigodis Appling, said his client had been suffering from anxiety and depression and did not think his actions would result in police shooting at him.

A psychiatrist found Mr Broadnax mentally fit to stand trial despite him being taken to mental health facility where a detective “he was talking to dead relatives in his head and that he tried throwing himself in front of cars to kill himself.”

Mariann Wang, a lawyer representing Sahar Khoshakhlagh, one of the women who was shot, said the district attoey should be charing the two officers who fired their weapons, not Mr Broadnax.

"It’s an incredibly unfortunate use of prosecutorial discretion to be prosecuting a man who didn’t even injure my client," she said. "It’s the police who injured my client."