Thursday morning’s law enforcement effort comes after officers spent hours threatening arrests over loud speakers if people did not disperse.

A police officer who was involved in clearing protesters from a Columbia University administration building earlier this week fired his gun inside the hall, a spokesperson for District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office confirmed Thursday.

No one was injured, according to spokesperson Doug Cohen, who said there were other officers but no students in the immediate vicinity. He said Bragg’s office is conducting a review.

He did not provide additional details on the incident, which was first reported by news outlet The City.

The New York Police Department did not immediately respond to The Associated Press’ request for comment.

  • @[email protected]
    2•7 months ago

    You asked “you can … but why would you?”. You answered yourself.

    Because he wasn’t in a situation where he was going to need to shoot anyone but he decided to proceed as if he was. And accidents happen, as he demonstrated.

    You can say this is SOP, but that’s worse, isn’t it?

    • @[email protected]
      3•7 months ago

      Why would you = removing a WML. This guy is clearly a super huge idiot if that’s what he was trying to do. I would think that this is super far from SOP, which should be to use his flashlight since he’s surrounded by 999 other cops, this guy did not need his gun out at all.

      • @[email protected]
        2•7 months ago

        Yes, but he did have his gun out and the spokesperson effectively said “don’t worry, he didn’t mean to fire it - he was only planning to point it at people”.

        • @[email protected]
          1•7 months ago

          Yeah, sorry, at this point, I don’t know what you’re trying to say. I think we’re both in agreement that this cop is an idiot and should not have his gun out, right?

          I’ve only been trying to tell you that your question of “why he didn’t demount the flashlight” is not really how it works.