Zongo shooting
The Medical Examiner’s report on the police shooting death of an African immigrant in a Chelsea storage warehouse last year does not pinpoint the distance from which the gun was fired, according to Stuart London, attorney for the officer, Bryan Conroy, who received a copy of the report at a court appearance July 8.
Conroy contends that he shot Ousmane Zongo at close range as he struggled with the victim for his service revolver.
London said last week that nothing in the report contradicts Conroy’s version of the May 2003 fatal shooting of Zongo in the Chelsea Mini-Storage warehouse on 12th Ave. at 27th St. The officer was indicted last month on a manslaughter charge that he chased Zongo, 43, down a hallway and shot him four times.
Sanford Rubenstein, the lawyer representing Zongo’s family, dismissed London’s interpretation of the forensic report, noting that the grand jury indicted Conroy after seeing the report.
The shooting occurred during a police raid on a trademark-counterfeiting operation in the warehouse where Zongo worked repairing imported African artifacts. Zongo was not involved in the counterfeit case.
Courtney to hospital
Police took a distraught Courtney Love in handcuffs from her Soho apartment to Bellevue Hospital on Friday evening July 9 after they found her bleeding, apparently from a miscarriage or abortion, according to reports. The cuffs were necessary because Love, an actor and lead singer of the punk band Hole, was acting irrationally, according to the New York Post. Earlier that day, police turned up after a complaint that bottles were thrown into the street from Love’s fourth-floor window, but they left because they could not determine who had thrown the bottles, the report said.
Third-rail death
A man who fell from the Uptown platform onto the tracks of the subway station at Spring and Lafayette Sts. at 8:25 p.m. Mon. July 12 came in contact with the third rail and died at the scene, police said. The identity of the victim, 41, was not released pending family notification. Police said no criminality was suspected.
Bridge rescue
Two detectives from the Fifth Precinct who noticed a woman walking distractedly on the Manhattan Bridge at 9:45 a.m. Thurs. July 8 grabbed her and pulled her to safety when she began climbing the railing, police said. The victim, 67, was taken to Bellevue in stable condition.
Bias harassment
Two men walking on First Ave. at E. 13th St. at 1:10 a.m. Wed. July 7 were harassed by two strangers who shouted anti-gay epithets, police said. There were no injuries or arrests and police are investigating.
DOA on 29th St.
Police responding to a report about an unconscious man in Apt. 14C at 10 E. 29th St. at 1:15 p.m. Tues. July 6 found Eric Douglas, a resident, dead on the living room floor. Son of Kirk Douglas and a half-brother to Michael Douglas, he had been long troubled by drug- and alcohol-abuse problems. The Medical Examiner’s office is investigating the cause of death.
Canal St. crash
A cab and an SUV crashed on the westbound lanes of Canal St. at Greenwich St. at about 9:50 a.m. Tues. July 13, injuring both drivers. The cab was making a right turn onto Greenwich St. from the left lane of Canal and apparently failed to see the SUV coming from behind on its right side. The right front and side of the cab smashed into the left front of the SUV. The cab driver was removed, apparently unconscious, from the cab to an Emergency Medical Service ambulance and a woman passenger walked away unhurt. The SUV driver was also taken to the hospital and his passenger sustained minor injuries.
