Off-Duty Officer Fires Gun To Scare Off Armed Robbers

NEW YORK -- "An off-duty MTA police officer scared off two robbers in his backyard by firing four shots on Tuesday morning.

Nassau County Police said the officer was home in Elmont when he heard noises at 1:15 early Tuesday morning. He went into the backyard and saw two men with guns wearing hooded sweatshirts and dark clothing. When the officer ordered the suspects to stop, they headed toward him. Police said the officer then fired his service revolver and the suspects ran to a mini-van and drove off. Police said the officer reports that four tires were stolen from his car. There were no injuries."

Except the outright massacre of common sense.

Good PR job by the department though. Convinced a news organization that a cop saw armed men approaching him and simply fired into the sky to scare them off.

Right.

Too embarrassing to say he missed, and what the hell, the journalists won't know enough to call them on it. Even so, you'd think they'd question the premise that firing blindly into the night is a safe and sane thing to do.

NO New York Metropolitan Transit Authority officers are issued revolvers. If he's over 50 then he may have one grandfathered in, but then its doubtful he'd still be an officer, and since he was not mentioned as a high-ranking member of the force or a grizzled veteran, its yet another case of the media screwing the pooch.