Empire State Building Shooting Leaves 2 Dead, 9 Wounded

Empire State Building Shooting Leaves 2 Dead, 9 Wounded

Nine people were wounded and two people were killed outside the Empire State Building in Midtown Manhattan Friday after a desperate designer for women's accessories named Jeffrey Johnson shot his 41 year-old former boss, Steven Ercolino. The two dead include the gunman, who was shot and killed by the police near the tourist entrance of the landmark skyscraper.  The shooting occurred at 9:03 a.m. ET on West 33rd Street.

Fifty-three year-old Johnson lost his job last year during a corporate downsizing at Hazan Imports, where Ercolino was a vice president. He returned to his office Friday morning to target his former supervisor.

Johnson followed his former co-worker down 33rd Street and shot him outside of Legends Bar, based on the New York Post report. It is unclear if he fired into a crowd of pedestrians outside of the Empire State Building, or if pedestrians were caught in crossfire.

A construction worker who witnessed the shooting followed the suspect and then alerted police who were posted nearby. As the officers approached Johnson, he pulled his gun and fired on the officers. They returned fire and killed him, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

None of the other people who were shot were seriously wounded and they are all expected to recover. Some of those wounded may have been hit by police gunfire, Bloomberg said.

After the shooting, police immediately cordoned off a one-block perimeter around the Empire State Building.

Posted by James Fried on Saturday August 25 2012, 7:26 AM EDT. Ref: Reuters. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Nation. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0