Jeffrey Johnson Identified as Empire State Building Shooting 2012 Suspect
LOS ANGELES (LALATE) – Jeffrey Johnson has been identified as the Empire State Building shooting 2012 suspect. Jeffrey Johnson of Hazan Imports remains the sole suspect in the Empire State Building shooting today August 24, 2012, officials tell news. The gunman and one other victim are dead, and as many as ten persons are injured. Police officers tell news that the shooter was a disgruntled worker whose violence stemmed from a workplace dispute. No Facebook or Twitter account has yet to be identified for Jeffrey Johnson, 53. Johnson had been employed for six years at Hazan Imports as designer of women’s accessories, officials tell news.
New York police responded to the building shortly after 9 am local time. Immediately, the suspect, Jeffrey Johnson, was identified by NYPD and fatally shot. Today’s rampage was not an act of terrorism, police confirmed to news. Rather it stemmed from an employment disagreement.
Empire State Building Shooting Pictures
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Streets were immediately closed around the crime scene. Several blocks around 5th Avenue and 34th Street were closed Friday morning. One witnessed told CNN that the gunman was brandishing a very “large gun”. Another witness saw blood scattered across the sidewalk. A third said that the gunman was shooting randomly, describing his conduct as “shooting indiscriminately at people.” Some crime scene images posted to Twitter showed a male laying on the street with blood beside him.
Local news claimed that the attack, however, began with one targeted hit upon a co-worker. The suspect was described as a disgruntled male worker who shot one fatal bullet at his boss. “A source on the scene said the shooter may have been targeting a coworker, who is believed to have been killed, before opening fire on bystanders,” NBC reports.
EMT told news that ten persons were injured, eight persons were evaluated. The injured victims may not have all suffered gunshot wounds. The injured were treated at St. Luke’s Hospital and Bellevue Hospital.
UPDATE 11AM: Local news is now reporting the shooter was a recently fired worker. The other fatality was the shooter’s boss. The shooter reportedly stalked his boss before shooting him on a Midtown street, the NY Post is reporting.
Moreover, an Instagram image today of an African American man on the ground, aided by a woman in red, is not the boss; the man in that picture is being treated at a local area hospital, claims local news.