March 25, 2026 • 29 mins
July 23rd, 2003. Brooklyn City Councilman James E. Davis arrives at City Hall with a guest, Niel Askew. Both men are Black, handsome and wearing a suit. And both are carrying concealed weapons. Niel Askew had been running against James Davis in the upcoming election, but the men seem to have cut some kind of deal for Niel to drop out of the race. But in less than 30 minutes, both of them will be dead.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
July twenty third, two thousand and three, a Wednesday, a hot,
humid Midsummer day. James E. Davis, the New York City
councilman from Brooklyn's thirty fifth district, arrives at the west
entrance of City Hall around one forty pm. He's with
the guest. Like James, the man is black, he's handsome,
(00:31):
and he's stressed in a suit. The City Council is
about to hold what's known as a stated meeting, where
council members introduced and vote on legislation.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
We've in the City Hall on the day of the
stated meeting. There's always a large crowd of people. I
definitely remember seeing James in the parking lot and.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Michael McMahon as a council member of from Staten Island.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
So as we came into the security police hut there
where they had the Mutton magnetometers, we all got way
through and I remember seeing James coming through with him.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
The magnetometers are the metal detectors at the security desk.
James Davis doesn't pass through them, and neither does his guest.
Neil ask you, technically it's against the rules, but it's
typical A courtesy for the council members and the mayor.
Both men are carrying concealed weapons. Dan Jennison is a
(01:29):
reporter for New York News Day. He's headed out to
lunch when he runs in the James and his guest
at security.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
We walked through the metal detector.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
James Davis is there, and I said, how you doing?
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Counselman Davis goes into like a boxing couple of faints.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Is I'm fighting.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
I'm gonna stay in there.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I'm gonna stay in there. There's a Democratic primary in September.
James Davis is up for reelection and he's got some competition,
but he's a fighter. The other guy says, oh yeah,
he's permanent. Whatever the hell happened on What does it
mean that James E. Davis is permanent, especially on this day,
(02:12):
July twenty third, two thousand and three, because in less
than thirty minutes they'll be dead, all going and see
his stampede of lake.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
A silver forty caliber handgun was recovered at the scene.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
How could this have that been at city Hall?
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Will somebody tell me that Jeffrey who wasn't a coincidence
and Jeffrey who did it? There were times when I
thought that he was unstable, and there were times when
I thought maybe he shouldn't carry a gun.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
He was an innocent kid from Low Island that was closeted.
His parents would accept him. He at he was a
victim of flatmawn.
Speaker 7 (02:50):
This is not just killing somebody because you want. This
may or may not have been political, that may have
been about sex, and it's still misunderstood or not understood
after all these years. Yep, somebody got to tell this
James E. Davis story.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
The fullness of that story has not been told. This
is a story about something that happened over twenty years ago.
It was a shocking thing, horrifying and violent and tragic.
But the way it was explained at the time was simple,
(03:26):
and maybe for that reason it was reassuring. People heard
that story and they accepted it, and they moved on.
And now it's pretty much forgotten except by those who
were there or close to the people involved, And more
than twenty years later, they still have questions. I'm Jamala Jordan,
(03:48):
and this is Rorshak murder at City Hall. Frankie Edosian
covers City Hall for The New York Post, one of
the big tabloid newspapers passed through there.
Speaker 8 (04:11):
You know, people who are professional politicians who are running campaigns,
and everybody is coming to the cow at city Hall.
It's a milker and you have a front receipt to
all of that.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Frankie Dosian arrives at City Hall around the same time
as James Davis and his guests, just after one.
Speaker 8 (04:30):
I noticed James as I was walking up the top
of the stairs and he was talking to a guy
who was dressed in a suit very nicely. James called
me old, but I wasn't really interested in stopping to
talk to him because I was thinking about all the
stories that I was going to try and get into
the paper the next day.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Frankie lives in Fort Greene in Brooklyn, and Davis is
his councilman. He's very present in the district, the kind
of politician who seems to know everyone in the neighborhood.
Speaker 8 (05:00):
And James waves me over and he, you know, introduces me,
and he says, this is something to the effect of
this is the guy from the lamehood I wanted you
to meet, or something like that.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
But I took a good look at at Neil Ausneil
ask you or Neil, as he's called, is James Davis's guests,
and I.
Speaker 8 (05:16):
Noticed it was wearing a really nice suit, well fitted
pocket squares. So I was looking at his buttons and
we decided to have a conversation right and I was asking, oh,
what street do you want?
Speaker 7 (05:25):
Do you know this?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Do you know that?
Speaker 8 (05:27):
And he seemed very very cageous. I wasn't sure why
James wanted to introduce me to someone who wasn't being
talkative on a day that was a rather busy day
for me.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
So Frank Adosian continues on into the council chamber and
takes his seat at the press table off to the
side on the council floor. Charles Baron represents the forty
second district East New York and Brooklyn. He's a more
radical figure new York politics a council member, but as
(06:03):
he says, still a black panther at heart.
Speaker 9 (06:06):
I had a press conference that day and I was
on the steps of City Hall when James Davis came in.
Because I saw James, I said, you want to say
if he words? He said, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
James walks over with his guest, and when he.
Speaker 9 (06:20):
Introduced him to me, I coiled back I said whoa,
and he said no, no, no, Charles. He used to
be I didn't know he used to be against me, Charles,
but now he's with me. I said no, I didn't
know what he was. I just got a vibe like,
so I said.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Whoa, Charles has taken aback, but James tells him don't worry,
he's a military guy. And the moment passes, and then
Charles heads up to the second floor to his seat
in the council chamber. James and Neal make their way
(06:59):
to the rotunda, where a pair of staircases lead to
the second floor.
Speaker 6 (07:06):
We start all meetings off with ceremonies. Proclamations have given out.
In this case, there was the little Princesses of the
Bronx Puerto Rican Day Parade, you know, five six year
olds in the crowns and the tierras.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Gary Altman is the Legislative Council. It's his job to
organize these ceremonies that run prior to the council meeting.
Speaker 6 (07:24):
So I'm off to the side on the chamber. The
next thing I know, there's an arm around me and
it's James and he says, hey, brother, like, what's going on.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Gary tells James he should join a photo op. It
was one of the community groups.
Speaker 6 (07:36):
He's with the guy, no idea who it was, wearing
a suit and he turned to the guy and says,
go sit over there. Then he got in the picture.
Good for him. It's an election year, you know all
mom an apple pie.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Gary's twenty one year old daughter Ariel is in the
council chambers today, sitting up in the balcony.
Speaker 6 (07:57):
My brilliant daughter who was working for Betsy Guy and
the public advocates left us that summer, so kind of
seeing me in action for the first time.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Garry goes back to his business, keeping the meeting on track.
After the photo op, James moves around the floor, introducing
his guests to some council members. I sit down on
my desk and they get a slap on my back
and I look up and James Davis he was a
backslapper and I get up.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
We were joking about talking about an issue.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
City councilman Joe Adabo is chatting with James when he
notices the other man, James's guest.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
I'll never forget the face, a very angry, very ugly face,
and just your distorted kind of angry face. I couldn't
even look at him.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
And then they hit the gavel.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
To stop the session. And that's when James Davis turned
around to that individual and said, okay, let me get
jump says in the gallery, and they walked up.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
The gallery is a balcony where guests and council staff
can sit and watch the meeting. You get there by
us marble staircase just outside the doors of the council chamber.
On their way to the stairs, James and Neil running
the councilman hire Monsarrat, Like pretty much everyone else, Monsarrat
sinses something is off about Neil asking His.
Speaker 10 (09:16):
Eyes seemed to me large, like you know, almost like
bug eye. And I looked at him, he looked at me,
and I felt like he was a little nervous.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
But again James Davis is acting like everything is fine.
Speaker 10 (09:30):
He introduces me to mister ask you and he told me, oh,
this guy was running against me, but now we're good.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
I said, oh, good, good, good.
Speaker 10 (09:40):
So we had to be inside the chambers and he
said to me, hire them, let me take him up
to the balcony. I'll be right down. So I think
I was the last person to utter a word to
James before he went up the stairs.
Speaker 6 (09:56):
I know my daughter was in the balcony and I
looked up and I was surprised to see James and
this guy and now they're up in the balcony. Interest
from my daughter, but it meant nothing. I don't think
anything of it.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
The meeting is about to begin. From the council floor,
Councilman Tonia Bella sis James Davis up in the balcony
and it seems strange to him, like something's wrong.
Speaker 8 (10:22):
It's sort of motion to him, like what are you
doing up there?
Speaker 2 (10:26):
And I'll never forget this because I was wondering, then
should I go up there and see what's going on?
And something distracted me from doing that.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Councilman Joe Adabo, there was an argument and you know,
had a verbal argument up in the gallery and we
all looked up and I'll never forget it.
Speaker 6 (10:43):
Was Miguel Martinez who sat behind me, and he holds
up to James Davis.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
He says, hey, you know, everything okay up there?
Speaker 8 (10:48):
And James Davis leans over the balcony and he puts
two thumbs up and he says, yeah, we're fine, We're fine.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Two thumbs up, and we sit back down, and then
the first shot rang out.
Speaker 11 (11:03):
I see the.
Speaker 10 (11:03):
Shots, and I remember everyone stopped.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Counselman hiring monsron.
Speaker 10 (11:09):
Everyone was I thinking a state of shot, and I screamed,
get down, get down, those are shots, those are shots,
Get down. I knew the shots were coming from the balconies,
my perception at the time when someone was shooting down
from the balcony and boom.
Speaker 6 (11:24):
Pretty sure that someone yelled balcony.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
From where he's now sitting. Gary Allman can't see up
into the balcony.
Speaker 6 (11:30):
My daughter is up there with my daughter. I can't
see her.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
I heard a shot go off, Counselman Charles Baron, several shots.
Speaker 9 (11:40):
Everybody in the chambers ducked and went down and start
scattering to get out there. I looked up and I
saw a silver gun in the shooter's hands, and he
was shooting down with somebody who was on the floor
so I couldn't see who it was, and everybody said
barn in.
Speaker 10 (12:01):
Then there was a brief pause, and I remember a
rush like a stampede. This is all real time, This
is not a TV movie, this is happening live, so
I'm literally crouched on the floor and I'm looking and
I see a stampede of legs.
Speaker 7 (12:17):
Go go, go, go, go, go go, screaming.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Gifford Miller is just thirty three years old. He's the
youngest speaker in the history of the New York City Council.
He's at his podium in the middle of the room
when the shooting starts.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
My back was to the balcony and I heard fireworks
going on, and I was like, that is really weird
that somebody's setting off fireworks in the chamber. Actually, I
remember thinking for like, maybe they're fireworks, but maybe they're
not fireworks. And if they're not fireworks, this is really
bad and I need to get down. So i'ved underneath
the desk. I remember being down there with David Wepbron
(13:12):
were like underneath the desks and we're like.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Cowering Councilman David Wepron. I ducked under with Gifford Miller,
who was the speaker. I was right behind him. He
kept saying, where's my security detail? Where's my security detail?
Speaker 12 (13:25):
So the answer to that question was Carl was downstairs
having lunch because we were in City Hall. It is
only one of the most protected locations in New York.
Speaker 7 (13:36):
Okay, so we'll take you through the steps of the shooting.
We'll start off with let's come in here for a second.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, where we know again.
Speaker 7 (13:47):
We are right now. We are in the speakers quarters here.
The Speaker's office is in through there.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
In July two thousand and three, there are two men
assigned to the security detail for Speaker Gifford Miller. One
of the New York City Police officer named Richard Burt,
and the other is this man Carl.
Speaker 7 (14:06):
The album staff sat here and this was their office
at the time of the shooting. I was coming out
of that bathroom. So I came in out of that bathroom.
I had my jacket in hand, and I got to
this point here the door entry. When the first shot
went off, I dropped my jacket, very vividly, being right here.
(14:31):
Jacket was dropped. Now you could hear how much the echoes. Yeah,
So the next shots rang out here, rush up to
the top of the steps here.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Goodford Miller had thought it might be fireworks, but Carl
knew exactly what he was hearing.
Speaker 7 (14:47):
Absolutely, you know, coming from my background.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Us Carl had worked in the Narcotics Division at the
NYPD before joining the security detail at City Hall.
Speaker 7 (15:00):
I've been in meducation narcotics in the eighties and it's
the height of the crack era. I was up in
Washington Heights, so we were executing two three search ones
a day. I don't remember a search one that we did.
There wasn't a gun involved, so you were either fighting
with somebody had a gun or you know, fighting for
your life at some point, you know, going through that door,
(15:22):
gun's blazing and yeah, were you ever hit? I was
never head Now, did you ever have to hit someone? Yes?
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Yes, absolutely so. Carl knew the sound of gunshots, and
when he hears the men city Hall, he snaps into action.
Speaker 7 (15:43):
So when I get to this point here, people are
coming down frantically down.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
The steps and at the top of the steps Carlos
He's councilman Jimmy Otto at the door to the chamber,
and inside Gifford Miller, the man Carl's assigned to protect.
Speaker 7 (16:01):
Gifford Miller, was at the podium there hould the store open. Here,
this is what Gifferd is standing. So now when the
shots werang out, myself and Jimmy Otto at that door.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
That fraction of a second as you're trying to process what.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Would that sound? Councilman Jimmy Ida, I'm.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Looking in and seeing my colleagues all on the ground,
looking up, and as Mike McMahon and his staff literally
hiding behind the Thomas Jefferson's statue the face of it.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Then Idola sees ritchie Bert, the other member of the
security detail, standing on the floor of the council chamber,
firing his service pistol, both.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Hands on his gun and just sort of wielding around.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
With his gun in his hands.
Speaker 10 (16:48):
And I was like, my god, like what's going on?
Speaker 4 (16:52):
And I remember Gifford Miller looking up and like me
seeing and then I'm pushing the door and saying come.
Speaker 7 (16:58):
The speaker drops here here and he's on the floor
and Jimmy Otto is yelling to him to get up
and get out. I'm yelling to the speaker, no, stay down,
I'll come and get you. So I run in to
grab him. He gets up stust on towards me. In
(17:20):
the meantime, Detective Burke is proximately here, still done in
hand covering. As we leave the chambers, I literally come
over here, let me use you as as an example.
I literally have the speaker, I want to grab your
collar by his collar here, just like this, and I
(17:42):
am I don't think his feet hit the ground, to
be honest with you.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
They hustled me out the door and was like, you know,
like all those movies you see where like the Secret
Service guys are like kind of almost carrying.
Speaker 7 (17:55):
It was like that.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
I remember, that was what I was thinking. It's like,
this is it's crazy.
Speaker 7 (18:00):
So much drum was going and I'm moving him through.
Speaker 8 (18:04):
And out.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Because the meeting it only just started. Frankie Dozian is
the sole reporter in the chamber at the time. I
was sited at the press table and then I just
heard the.
Speaker 8 (18:19):
Shots and I looked up to where they were coming from,
and it was a guy dressed in a suit with
a handgun shooting. I was sitting next to what is
called a sergeant on arms.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
The sergeant at arms is supposed to keep the peace
at public hearings, but they don't carry a weapon.
Speaker 8 (18:37):
And I remember with the lady, she held on to
me really tightly and we went under the table. And
then the first thing that I did was even with
the Fagian, that I'm holding me and trying to keep
me down. So I picked my head up and looked
out again at what was happening, grabbed my pen on
my notebook because I wanted to continue writing notes just
in case this was something. Of course it was something,
(18:59):
But that's sort of like what you think about. It's
like you are not you at the time. You are
the person to record this for history. The city often
videotapes these meetings. The footage from July twenty third starts
with the business of a typical day. First of all,
(19:19):
I would like to thank everyone for this beautiful invitation
to the council today.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
But a few minutes later, this camera captures the moment
when the shots ring out. The City council chamber was
constructed at the beginning of the nineteenth century designs so
(19:46):
that voices would carry like an old theater in the room.
These shots are incredibly loud, and to the people inside,
it feels like they could be coming from anywhere and everywhere.
Council Member Cassine Quinn, it sounded like tons of bullets.
It just sounded like it was a battle. Councilman Eric
(20:08):
Delon everything in that train but echoes so you can imagine,
you know, the gunshots echo, and so I feel like
you were going to catch a heart attack.
Speaker 6 (20:16):
Then you just go into survival boat.
Speaker 5 (20:21):
The noise rituchee from the wall behind me. I felt
like it went through me. I thought that I had
gotten shot.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Debbie almansoss her as a teacher and activist. She's sitting
near the little girls from the Bronx Puerto Rican Day
Parade pageant.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
I remember grambling and got all of those little girls
that were near me out of that chamber room. I
grambled them with me into the bathroom and I put
them on the toilet seat in one of those jobs,
and then I told them to be very quiet because
I didn't know what to expect. Report you're all doing.
Speaker 7 (21:09):
Gunshots have ceased. We have no idea what happens. All
hell has broken loose council members, staffers scattered completely all
over the floor under desks, people screaming. Nobody knows what
happened by self included that's where he ran out.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
So now, wait, how are you feelingering all this?
Speaker 7 (21:32):
How am I feeling? It was my first shooting, so
it wasn't It wasn't like we haven't done this before. Okay.
So we come out here and now we're going down
the steps. We fly out of the steps here. Richie's
behind you, okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Richie Bert had come from the council chamber. He had
just fired six shots up at a man in the balcony.
Carl is all the care Gifford Miller down the stairs.
Then they give them make their way to a small
anti chamber just outside the Speaker's office.
Speaker 7 (22:07):
Regret him and we are forcing him on the desk.
Richie Burke is that this desk, gun in hand, him
at this desk, gun at hand. I'm asking Richard the
whole time how many were there? As there multiple shooters
up there. He has no idea. I can see a
little bit of shock in his face right now. So
(22:28):
we're trying to calm him down. I said, Richie, you
take that entrance. I'll take that entrance if they come through.
I said, just empty, empty your gun. I said, we're
going out. I'm just emptied.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Councilman Robert Jackson is among a small group of people
who have barricaded themselves in the Speaker's office.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
Somebody says they're shooting. We went directly into the Speaker's
private office and then.
Speaker 9 (22:53):
I heard banging on the door.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
I just.
Speaker 8 (22:58):
Over up.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
Two police officers not in uniform, and they had their
guns out.
Speaker 7 (23:06):
That's what happened, was the staff from here barricane themselves
in here and into the Speaker's office. So I'm knocking
on this glass here, but I'm like, hey, I'm trying
to get somebody's attentions to go through nothing. There was
a headyweight tape, dispensers heavy. I go to grab dispenser
(23:28):
to break through the glass as I know to do that.
Barbara Schaffiti, who was the secretary here, she opens the door.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
So you almost hit Barbara.
Speaker 7 (23:38):
With the tape. Oh definitely. So Barbara Schiffitti is here.
We come in myself, Ritchie and Giffid Miller. So the
whole time, Giffed is saying, if we don't make it,
tell my tell my wife and my kids. I love
them all this drama. I'm on the radio at this time,
(23:59):
trying to give everybody an idea of what has happened,
all right, and where we are a relationship to where
the shooting is. There's a bathroom in his office, a
bathroom door she comes flying open. Was another staffer in
the bathroom, hiding in the bathroom. I don't know how
(24:20):
we didn't. By the grace of God, we didn't shoot,
but she won't screaming out this way back into this room.
Now we we realize, hey, we're ping down in there.
We have to get out. So there's a back door.
We exit out through the back door.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
The three of us.
Speaker 7 (24:38):
We come out this back door here, just the back
door of the time.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Carl Ritchie and Gifford, Miller and merge in the north
side of City Hall.
Speaker 7 (24:48):
We come down these steps at this time.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
It's a courtyard with trees and old fashioned lamp posts,
and across the street passed them gates the Tweed Courthouse.
Speaker 7 (24:58):
We went right through here. This is the Tree Courthouse.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Here. Boss Tweed, the famous nineteenth century Tammany Hall leader,
ordered the construction of this courthouse in eighteen sixty one
and embezzled heavily from its budget. When he was caught.
The trial took place inside the unfinished building. It was
completed as he served as sentence. Carl leads Gifford inside
(25:24):
with Richik in tow.
Speaker 7 (25:26):
So I go in there and I start giving orders
to lock down the building that we have a shooter,
an active shooter inside the City Hall. We go up
to the second floor, which I believe is there.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
On the second floor window of the Tweed Courthouse, they
could see rows of cars stopped in traffic.
Speaker 7 (25:43):
There was a light there and you could see from
that angle people leaving their cars and running. Forget. This
is Leeftter nine to eleven, so nobody knew what kind
of attack this was.
Speaker 12 (25:53):
I called my wife and said, you're gonna hear some
bad stuff, but I'm okay.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Meanwhile, police and paramedics have descended on City Hall at
black and a blue shooter is a possible shoot up?
Speaker 11 (26:37):
Does anybody have a visual on.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
The first person? Respond and have shut up a form
they yet? Have we got any brook Bridge e mts
have rushed inside the chamber and retrieved two people with
gunshot wounds from the floor of the balcony. The blood
of the two men makes one big mark on the carpet.
In ABC Channel seven news helicopter hovers above City Hall
(27:04):
reporting the scene. In real time, you can see.
Speaker 11 (27:07):
One of the ambulances pulling away. Now and from our
understanding right now, this could be the only two people
that were injured here, and you see these two ambulances
leaving the scene. Hopefully there are no more people that
were injured.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
The ambulances leave City Hall one after the other. Police
have closed off the streets that clear the way to
nearby Beacman Hospital. Giffred Miller in his security detail, Carl
Diaba and Richie Birt are still in the Tweed Courthouse
next door to City Hall.
Speaker 7 (27:39):
Now, Giffred Miller is getting phone calls, and he's getting
phone calls from inside the chambers, and it's council business.
Speaker 12 (27:48):
The people believe there were two shooters and that one
was at large less than two years from September eleven.
Of course your mind goes to terrorism. But the crazier
part was that we found out that James had been shot.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Council Member Miguel Martinez, the man who called up to
James Davis and the balcony, is everything okay? Up there?
Financies this interview with the NYPD and is allowed to leave.
A reporter from ABC News catches him on the street outside.
Did anyone get a good look at the shooter?
Speaker 4 (28:21):
We understand it as a light skinned black man with
a light blue shirt and a dark blue suit, but
other than that, can you add anything.
Speaker 7 (28:26):
We don't know.
Speaker 10 (28:27):
The only confirmation we got is that one person injured
and one has passed away.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Counselman Davis, we understand is the one who was injured,
I hope, So we're praying for that. So we don't
know that yet. We don't know that yet.
Speaker 12 (28:39):
So thin remember James is that he was a former
police officer and James had a permit to carry.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
So all Richie knew was that he shot a black
guy with a gun.
Speaker 12 (28:51):
We didn't know why James was in the balcony, but
we thought to ourselves that if there had been a
guy in a balcony with a gun you'd opened up
on the council, James would have taken his gun out
and shot the assailant.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
And so we were worried that Ritchie had shot James Davis.
That's next time on Orshak Murder at City Hall. Rorshak
Murder at City Hall is a production of iHeart Podcasts
in partnership with Best Case Studios. It's based on Death
(29:25):
in the Chamber by Brent Katz. It's written and executive
produced by Brent Katz and Adam pinkis produced by Charlotte
Morley and co produced by me Jamal Jordan, edited and
mixed by Max Michael Miller. For this episode, Dean White
did additional sound sign Original music was composed by tunday
Anavimpe and Walder Zobie Our Kaiable producer Isabelle d'Orval, consulting
(29:47):
producer Amir Loomis. Development production assistance from David Michael ar Kiabal.
Content provided by Spectrum News New York. One addition
July twenty third, two thousand and three, a Wednesday, a hot,
humid Midsummer day. James E. Davis, the New York City
councilman from Brooklyn's thirty fifth district, arrives at the west
entrance of City Hall around one forty pm. He's with
the guest. Like James, the man is black, he's handsome,
(00:31):
and he's stressed in a suit. The City Council is
about to hold what's known as a stated meeting, where
council members introduced and vote on legislation.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
We've in the City Hall on the day of the
stated meeting. There's always a large crowd of people. I
definitely remember seeing James in the parking lot and.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Michael McMahon as a council member of from Staten Island.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
So as we came into the security police hut there
where they had the Mutton magnetometers, we all got way
through and I remember seeing James coming through with him.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
The magnetometers are the metal detectors at the security desk.
James Davis doesn't pass through them, and neither does his guest.
Neil ask you, technically it's against the rules, but it's
typical A courtesy for the council members and the mayor.
Both men are carrying concealed weapons. Dan Jennison is a
(01:29):
reporter for New York News Day. He's headed out to
lunch when he runs in the James and his guest
at security.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
We walked through the metal detector.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
James Davis is there, and I said, how you doing?
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Counselman Davis goes into like a boxing couple of faints.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Is I'm fighting.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
I'm gonna stay in there.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I'm gonna stay in there. There's a Democratic primary in September.
James Davis is up for reelection and he's got some competition,
but he's a fighter. The other guy says, oh yeah,
he's permanent. Whatever the hell happened on What does it
mean that James E. Davis is permanent, especially on this day,
(02:12):
July twenty third, two thousand and three, because in less
than thirty minutes they'll be dead, all going and see
his stampede of lake.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
A silver forty caliber handgun was recovered at the scene.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
How could this have that been at city Hall?
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Will somebody tell me that Jeffrey who wasn't a coincidence
and Jeffrey who did it? There were times when I
thought that he was unstable, and there were times when
I thought maybe he shouldn't carry a gun.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
He was an innocent kid from Low Island that was closeted.
His parents would accept him. He at he was a
victim of flatmawn.
Speaker 7 (02:50):
This is not just killing somebody because you want. This
may or may not have been political, that may have
been about sex, and it's still misunderstood or not understood
after all these years. Yep, somebody got to tell this
James E. Davis story.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
The fullness of that story has not been told. This
is a story about something that happened over twenty years ago.
It was a shocking thing, horrifying and violent and tragic.
But the way it was explained at the time was simple,
(03:26):
and maybe for that reason it was reassuring. People heard
that story and they accepted it, and they moved on.
And now it's pretty much forgotten except by those who
were there or close to the people involved, And more
than twenty years later, they still have questions. I'm Jamala Jordan,
(03:48):
and this is Rorshak murder at City Hall. Frankie Edosian
covers City Hall for The New York Post, one of
the big tabloid newspapers passed through there.
Speaker 8 (04:11):
You know, people who are professional politicians who are running campaigns,
and everybody is coming to the cow at city Hall.
It's a milker and you have a front receipt to
all of that.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Frankie Dosian arrives at City Hall around the same time
as James Davis and his guests, just after one.
Speaker 8 (04:30):
I noticed James as I was walking up the top
of the stairs and he was talking to a guy
who was dressed in a suit very nicely. James called
me old, but I wasn't really interested in stopping to
talk to him because I was thinking about all the
stories that I was going to try and get into
the paper the next day.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Frankie lives in Fort Greene in Brooklyn, and Davis is
his councilman. He's very present in the district, the kind
of politician who seems to know everyone in the neighborhood.
Speaker 8 (05:00):
And James waves me over and he, you know, introduces me,
and he says, this is something to the effect of
this is the guy from the lamehood I wanted you
to meet, or something like that.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
But I took a good look at at Neil Ausneil
ask you or Neil, as he's called, is James Davis's guests,
and I.
Speaker 8 (05:16):
Noticed it was wearing a really nice suit, well fitted
pocket squares. So I was looking at his buttons and
we decided to have a conversation right and I was asking, oh,
what street do you want?
Speaker 7 (05:25):
Do you know this?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Do you know that?
Speaker 8 (05:27):
And he seemed very very cageous. I wasn't sure why
James wanted to introduce me to someone who wasn't being
talkative on a day that was a rather busy day
for me.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
So Frank Adosian continues on into the council chamber and
takes his seat at the press table off to the
side on the council floor. Charles Baron represents the forty
second district East New York and Brooklyn. He's a more
radical figure new York politics a council member, but as
(06:03):
he says, still a black panther at heart.
Speaker 9 (06:06):
I had a press conference that day and I was
on the steps of City Hall when James Davis came in.
Because I saw James, I said, you want to say
if he words? He said, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
James walks over with his guest, and when he.
Speaker 9 (06:20):
Introduced him to me, I coiled back I said whoa,
and he said no, no, no, Charles. He used to
be I didn't know he used to be against me, Charles,
but now he's with me. I said no, I didn't
know what he was. I just got a vibe like,
so I said.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Whoa, Charles has taken aback, but James tells him don't worry,
he's a military guy. And the moment passes, and then
Charles heads up to the second floor to his seat
in the council chamber. James and Neal make their way
(06:59):
to the rotunda, where a pair of staircases lead to
the second floor.
Speaker 6 (07:06):
We start all meetings off with ceremonies. Proclamations have given out.
In this case, there was the little Princesses of the
Bronx Puerto Rican Day Parade, you know, five six year
olds in the crowns and the tierras.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Gary Altman is the Legislative Council. It's his job to
organize these ceremonies that run prior to the council meeting.
Speaker 6 (07:24):
So I'm off to the side on the chamber. The
next thing I know, there's an arm around me and
it's James and he says, hey, brother, like, what's going on.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Gary tells James he should join a photo op. It
was one of the community groups.
Speaker 6 (07:36):
He's with the guy, no idea who it was, wearing
a suit and he turned to the guy and says,
go sit over there. Then he got in the picture.
Good for him. It's an election year, you know all
mom an apple pie.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Gary's twenty one year old daughter Ariel is in the
council chambers today, sitting up in the balcony.
Speaker 6 (07:57):
My brilliant daughter who was working for Betsy Guy and
the public advocates left us that summer, so kind of
seeing me in action for the first time.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Garry goes back to his business, keeping the meeting on track.
After the photo op, James moves around the floor, introducing
his guests to some council members. I sit down on
my desk and they get a slap on my back
and I look up and James Davis he was a
backslapper and I get up.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
We were joking about talking about an issue.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
City councilman Joe Adabo is chatting with James when he
notices the other man, James's guest.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
I'll never forget the face, a very angry, very ugly face,
and just your distorted kind of angry face. I couldn't
even look at him.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
And then they hit the gavel.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
To stop the session. And that's when James Davis turned
around to that individual and said, okay, let me get
jump says in the gallery, and they walked up.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
The gallery is a balcony where guests and council staff
can sit and watch the meeting. You get there by
us marble staircase just outside the doors of the council chamber.
On their way to the stairs, James and Neil running
the councilman hire Monsarrat, Like pretty much everyone else, Monsarrat
sinses something is off about Neil asking His.
Speaker 10 (09:16):
Eyes seemed to me large, like you know, almost like
bug eye. And I looked at him, he looked at me,
and I felt like he was a little nervous.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
But again James Davis is acting like everything is fine.
Speaker 10 (09:30):
He introduces me to mister ask you and he told me, oh,
this guy was running against me, but now we're good.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
I said, oh, good, good, good.
Speaker 10 (09:40):
So we had to be inside the chambers and he
said to me, hire them, let me take him up
to the balcony. I'll be right down. So I think
I was the last person to utter a word to
James before he went up the stairs.
Speaker 6 (09:56):
I know my daughter was in the balcony and I
looked up and I was surprised to see James and
this guy and now they're up in the balcony. Interest
from my daughter, but it meant nothing. I don't think
anything of it.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
The meeting is about to begin. From the council floor,
Councilman Tonia Bella sis James Davis up in the balcony
and it seems strange to him, like something's wrong.
Speaker 8 (10:22):
It's sort of motion to him, like what are you
doing up there?
Speaker 2 (10:26):
And I'll never forget this because I was wondering, then
should I go up there and see what's going on?
And something distracted me from doing that.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Councilman Joe Adabo, there was an argument and you know,
had a verbal argument up in the gallery and we
all looked up and I'll never forget it.
Speaker 6 (10:43):
Was Miguel Martinez who sat behind me, and he holds
up to James Davis.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
He says, hey, you know, everything okay up there?
Speaker 8 (10:48):
And James Davis leans over the balcony and he puts
two thumbs up and he says, yeah, we're fine, We're fine.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Two thumbs up, and we sit back down, and then
the first shot rang out.
Speaker 11 (11:03):
I see the.
Speaker 10 (11:03):
Shots, and I remember everyone stopped.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Counselman hiring monsron.
Speaker 10 (11:09):
Everyone was I thinking a state of shot, and I screamed,
get down, get down, those are shots, those are shots,
Get down. I knew the shots were coming from the balconies,
my perception at the time when someone was shooting down
from the balcony and boom.
Speaker 6 (11:24):
Pretty sure that someone yelled balcony.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
From where he's now sitting. Gary Allman can't see up
into the balcony.
Speaker 6 (11:30):
My daughter is up there with my daughter. I can't
see her.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
I heard a shot go off, Counselman Charles Baron, several shots.
Speaker 9 (11:40):
Everybody in the chambers ducked and went down and start
scattering to get out there. I looked up and I
saw a silver gun in the shooter's hands, and he
was shooting down with somebody who was on the floor
so I couldn't see who it was, and everybody said
barn in.
Speaker 10 (12:01):
Then there was a brief pause, and I remember a
rush like a stampede. This is all real time, This
is not a TV movie, this is happening live, so
I'm literally crouched on the floor and I'm looking and
I see a stampede of legs.
Speaker 7 (12:17):
Go go, go, go, go, go go, screaming.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Gifford Miller is just thirty three years old. He's the
youngest speaker in the history of the New York City Council.
He's at his podium in the middle of the room
when the shooting starts.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
My back was to the balcony and I heard fireworks
going on, and I was like, that is really weird
that somebody's setting off fireworks in the chamber. Actually, I
remember thinking for like, maybe they're fireworks, but maybe they're
not fireworks. And if they're not fireworks, this is really
bad and I need to get down. So i'ved underneath
the desk. I remember being down there with David Wepbron
(13:12):
were like underneath the desks and we're like.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Cowering Councilman David Wepron. I ducked under with Gifford Miller,
who was the speaker. I was right behind him. He
kept saying, where's my security detail? Where's my security detail?
Speaker 12 (13:25):
So the answer to that question was Carl was downstairs
having lunch because we were in City Hall. It is
only one of the most protected locations in New York.
Speaker 7 (13:36):
Okay, so we'll take you through the steps of the shooting.
We'll start off with let's come in here for a second.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, where we know again.
Speaker 7 (13:47):
We are right now. We are in the speakers quarters here.
The Speaker's office is in through there.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
In July two thousand and three, there are two men
assigned to the security detail for Speaker Gifford Miller. One
of the New York City Police officer named Richard Burt,
and the other is this man Carl.
Speaker 7 (14:06):
The album staff sat here and this was their office
at the time of the shooting. I was coming out
of that bathroom. So I came in out of that bathroom.
I had my jacket in hand, and I got to
this point here the door entry. When the first shot
went off, I dropped my jacket, very vividly, being right here.
(14:31):
Jacket was dropped. Now you could hear how much the echoes. Yeah,
So the next shots rang out here, rush up to
the top of the steps here.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Goodford Miller had thought it might be fireworks, but Carl
knew exactly what he was hearing.
Speaker 7 (14:47):
Absolutely, you know, coming from my background.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Us Carl had worked in the Narcotics Division at the
NYPD before joining the security detail at City Hall.
Speaker 7 (15:00):
I've been in meducation narcotics in the eighties and it's
the height of the crack era. I was up in
Washington Heights, so we were executing two three search ones
a day. I don't remember a search one that we did.
There wasn't a gun involved, so you were either fighting
with somebody had a gun or you know, fighting for
your life at some point, you know, going through that door,
(15:22):
gun's blazing and yeah, were you ever hit? I was
never head Now, did you ever have to hit someone? Yes?
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Yes, absolutely so. Carl knew the sound of gunshots, and
when he hears the men city Hall, he snaps into action.
Speaker 7 (15:43):
So when I get to this point here, people are
coming down frantically down.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
The steps and at the top of the steps Carlos
He's councilman Jimmy Otto at the door to the chamber,
and inside Gifford Miller, the man Carl's assigned to protect.
Speaker 7 (16:01):
Gifford Miller, was at the podium there hould the store open. Here,
this is what Gifferd is standing. So now when the
shots werang out, myself and Jimmy Otto at that door.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
That fraction of a second as you're trying to process what.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Would that sound? Councilman Jimmy Ida, I'm.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Looking in and seeing my colleagues all on the ground,
looking up, and as Mike McMahon and his staff literally
hiding behind the Thomas Jefferson's statue the face of it.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Then Idola sees ritchie Bert, the other member of the
security detail, standing on the floor of the council chamber,
firing his service pistol, both.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Hands on his gun and just sort of wielding around.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
With his gun in his hands.
Speaker 10 (16:48):
And I was like, my god, like what's going on?
Speaker 4 (16:52):
And I remember Gifford Miller looking up and like me
seeing and then I'm pushing the door and saying come.
Speaker 7 (16:58):
The speaker drops here here and he's on the floor
and Jimmy Otto is yelling to him to get up
and get out. I'm yelling to the speaker, no, stay down,
I'll come and get you. So I run in to
grab him. He gets up stust on towards me. In
(17:20):
the meantime, Detective Burke is proximately here, still done in
hand covering. As we leave the chambers, I literally come
over here, let me use you as as an example.
I literally have the speaker, I want to grab your
collar by his collar here, just like this, and I
(17:42):
am I don't think his feet hit the ground, to
be honest with you.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
They hustled me out the door and was like, you know,
like all those movies you see where like the Secret
Service guys are like kind of almost carrying.
Speaker 7 (17:55):
It was like that.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
I remember, that was what I was thinking. It's like,
this is it's crazy.
Speaker 7 (18:00):
So much drum was going and I'm moving him through.
Speaker 8 (18:04):
And out.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Because the meeting it only just started. Frankie Dozian is
the sole reporter in the chamber at the time. I
was sited at the press table and then I just
heard the.
Speaker 8 (18:19):
Shots and I looked up to where they were coming from,
and it was a guy dressed in a suit with
a handgun shooting. I was sitting next to what is
called a sergeant on arms.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
The sergeant at arms is supposed to keep the peace
at public hearings, but they don't carry a weapon.
Speaker 8 (18:37):
And I remember with the lady, she held on to
me really tightly and we went under the table. And
then the first thing that I did was even with
the Fagian, that I'm holding me and trying to keep
me down. So I picked my head up and looked
out again at what was happening, grabbed my pen on
my notebook because I wanted to continue writing notes just
in case this was something. Of course it was something,
(18:59):
But that's sort of like what you think about. It's
like you are not you at the time. You are
the person to record this for history. The city often
videotapes these meetings. The footage from July twenty third starts
with the business of a typical day. First of all,
(19:19):
I would like to thank everyone for this beautiful invitation
to the council today.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
But a few minutes later, this camera captures the moment
when the shots ring out. The City council chamber was
constructed at the beginning of the nineteenth century designs so
(19:46):
that voices would carry like an old theater in the room.
These shots are incredibly loud, and to the people inside,
it feels like they could be coming from anywhere and everywhere.
Council Member Cassine Quinn, it sounded like tons of bullets.
It just sounded like it was a battle. Councilman Eric
(20:08):
Delon everything in that train but echoes so you can imagine,
you know, the gunshots echo, and so I feel like
you were going to catch a heart attack.
Speaker 6 (20:16):
Then you just go into survival boat.
Speaker 5 (20:21):
The noise rituchee from the wall behind me. I felt
like it went through me. I thought that I had
gotten shot.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Debbie almansoss her as a teacher and activist. She's sitting
near the little girls from the Bronx Puerto Rican Day
Parade pageant.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
I remember grambling and got all of those little girls
that were near me out of that chamber room. I
grambled them with me into the bathroom and I put
them on the toilet seat in one of those jobs,
and then I told them to be very quiet because
I didn't know what to expect. Report you're all doing.
Speaker 7 (21:09):
Gunshots have ceased. We have no idea what happens. All
hell has broken loose council members, staffers scattered completely all
over the floor under desks, people screaming. Nobody knows what
happened by self included that's where he ran out.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
So now, wait, how are you feelingering all this?
Speaker 7 (21:32):
How am I feeling? It was my first shooting, so
it wasn't It wasn't like we haven't done this before. Okay.
So we come out here and now we're going down
the steps. We fly out of the steps here. Richie's
behind you, okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Richie Bert had come from the council chamber. He had
just fired six shots up at a man in the balcony.
Carl is all the care Gifford Miller down the stairs.
Then they give them make their way to a small
anti chamber just outside the Speaker's office.
Speaker 7 (22:07):
Regret him and we are forcing him on the desk.
Richie Burke is that this desk, gun in hand, him
at this desk, gun at hand. I'm asking Richard the
whole time how many were there? As there multiple shooters
up there. He has no idea. I can see a
little bit of shock in his face right now. So
(22:28):
we're trying to calm him down. I said, Richie, you
take that entrance. I'll take that entrance if they come through.
I said, just empty, empty your gun. I said, we're
going out. I'm just emptied.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Councilman Robert Jackson is among a small group of people
who have barricaded themselves in the Speaker's office.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
Somebody says they're shooting. We went directly into the Speaker's
private office and then.
Speaker 9 (22:53):
I heard banging on the door.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
I just.
Speaker 8 (22:58):
Over up.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
Two police officers not in uniform, and they had their
guns out.
Speaker 7 (23:06):
That's what happened, was the staff from here barricane themselves
in here and into the Speaker's office. So I'm knocking
on this glass here, but I'm like, hey, I'm trying
to get somebody's attentions to go through nothing. There was
a headyweight tape, dispensers heavy. I go to grab dispenser
(23:28):
to break through the glass as I know to do that.
Barbara Schaffiti, who was the secretary here, she opens the door.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
So you almost hit Barbara.
Speaker 7 (23:38):
With the tape. Oh definitely. So Barbara Schiffitti is here.
We come in myself, Ritchie and Giffid Miller. So the
whole time, Giffed is saying, if we don't make it,
tell my tell my wife and my kids. I love
them all this drama. I'm on the radio at this time,
(23:59):
trying to give everybody an idea of what has happened,
all right, and where we are a relationship to where
the shooting is. There's a bathroom in his office, a
bathroom door she comes flying open. Was another staffer in
the bathroom, hiding in the bathroom. I don't know how
(24:20):
we didn't. By the grace of God, we didn't shoot,
but she won't screaming out this way back into this room.
Now we we realize, hey, we're ping down in there.
We have to get out. So there's a back door.
We exit out through the back door.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
The three of us.
Speaker 7 (24:38):
We come out this back door here, just the back
door of the time.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Carl Ritchie and Gifford, Miller and merge in the north
side of City Hall.
Speaker 7 (24:48):
We come down these steps at this time.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
It's a courtyard with trees and old fashioned lamp posts,
and across the street passed them gates the Tweed Courthouse.
Speaker 7 (24:58):
We went right through here. This is the Tree Courthouse.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Here. Boss Tweed, the famous nineteenth century Tammany Hall leader,
ordered the construction of this courthouse in eighteen sixty one
and embezzled heavily from its budget. When he was caught.
The trial took place inside the unfinished building. It was
completed as he served as sentence. Carl leads Gifford inside
(25:24):
with Richik in tow.
Speaker 7 (25:26):
So I go in there and I start giving orders
to lock down the building that we have a shooter,
an active shooter inside the City Hall. We go up
to the second floor, which I believe is there.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
On the second floor window of the Tweed Courthouse, they
could see rows of cars stopped in traffic.
Speaker 7 (25:43):
There was a light there and you could see from
that angle people leaving their cars and running. Forget. This
is Leeftter nine to eleven, so nobody knew what kind
of attack this was.
Speaker 12 (25:53):
I called my wife and said, you're gonna hear some
bad stuff, but I'm okay.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Meanwhile, police and paramedics have descended on City Hall at
black and a blue shooter is a possible shoot up?
Speaker 11 (26:37):
Does anybody have a visual on.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
The first person? Respond and have shut up a form
they yet? Have we got any brook Bridge e mts
have rushed inside the chamber and retrieved two people with
gunshot wounds from the floor of the balcony. The blood
of the two men makes one big mark on the carpet.
In ABC Channel seven news helicopter hovers above City Hall
(27:04):
reporting the scene. In real time, you can see.
Speaker 11 (27:07):
One of the ambulances pulling away. Now and from our
understanding right now, this could be the only two people
that were injured here, and you see these two ambulances
leaving the scene. Hopefully there are no more people that
were injured.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
The ambulances leave City Hall one after the other. Police
have closed off the streets that clear the way to
nearby Beacman Hospital. Giffred Miller in his security detail, Carl
Diaba and Richie Birt are still in the Tweed Courthouse
next door to City Hall.
Speaker 7 (27:39):
Now, Giffred Miller is getting phone calls, and he's getting
phone calls from inside the chambers, and it's council business.
Speaker 12 (27:48):
The people believe there were two shooters and that one
was at large less than two years from September eleven.
Of course your mind goes to terrorism. But the crazier
part was that we found out that James had been shot.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Council Member Miguel Martinez, the man who called up to
James Davis and the balcony, is everything okay? Up there?
Financies this interview with the NYPD and is allowed to leave.
A reporter from ABC News catches him on the street outside.
Did anyone get a good look at the shooter?
Speaker 4 (28:21):
We understand it as a light skinned black man with
a light blue shirt and a dark blue suit, but
other than that, can you add anything.
Speaker 7 (28:26):
We don't know.
Speaker 10 (28:27):
The only confirmation we got is that one person injured
and one has passed away.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Counselman Davis, we understand is the one who was injured,
I hope, So we're praying for that. So we don't
know that yet. We don't know that yet.
Speaker 12 (28:39):
So thin remember James is that he was a former
police officer and James had a permit to carry.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
So all Richie knew was that he shot a black
guy with a gun.
Speaker 12 (28:51):
We didn't know why James was in the balcony, but
we thought to ourselves that if there had been a
guy in a balcony with a gun you'd opened up
on the council, James would have taken his gun out
and shot the assailant.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
And so we were worried that Ritchie had shot James Davis.
That's next time on Orshak Murder at City Hall. Rorshak
Murder at City Hall is a production of iHeart Podcasts
in partnership with Best Case Studios. It's based on Death
(29:25):
in the Chamber by Brent Katz. It's written and executive
produced by Brent Katz and Adam pinkis produced by Charlotte
Morley and co produced by me Jamal Jordan, edited and
mixed by Max Michael Miller. For this episode, Dean White
did additional sound sign Original music was composed by tunday
Anavimpe and Walder Zobie Our Kaiable producer Isabelle d'Orval, consulting
(29:47):
producer Amir Loomis. Development production assistance from David Michael ar Kiabal.
Content provided by Spectrum News New York. One addition
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