SA国际传媒

By Jon Moss, Tim Knauss, Marnie Eisenstadt
syracuse.com

SYRACUSE, N.Y. 鈥� Crouching behind his police cruiser, Syracuse police officer Michael Jensen tried to contact his dispatcher to get a handle on a call that was quickly going bad.

鈥�430 to dispatch,鈥� he said into his radio. No response.

鈥淲hy is no one fucking answering?鈥� he said to his partner.

Jensen was one of seven officers who arrived on the night of April 14 at the Salina home of Christopher Murphy. : to ticket Murphy for speeding through Syracuse earlier that evening. But Murphy was waiting .

Just five minutes after police arrived, two of the officers were dead.

Those five minutes are documented in a .

The AG鈥檚 report provides the first detailed public account of the handling of the call that ended in tragedy and and . It reveals that the officers, in the dark of night, struggled to communicate with each other and did not know where their attacker was, as the situation unraveled quickly.

City and county police officials, who have conducted their own internal reviews of the incident, said there is nothing the officers should have done differently that could have prevented the tragedy.

Communications at the scene were hindered. Jensen and three other city cops were unable to talk by radio with the three Onondaga County sheriff鈥檚 deputies at the scene, according to the AG report. City police officials said they are revising their communications policy to try to prevent similar confusion in the future.

In the darkness that April night, Jensen tried to assess the location of the deputies.

鈥淗ey,鈥� Jensen radioed to the county 911 center. 鈥淭his is SPD unit 430. You got, you county boys 鈥� anyone around back of the house?鈥�

Seconds later, a series of gunshots rang out. Twenty shots in several bursts over half a minute.

Jensen didn鈥檛 know it, but had been shot dead. Hoosock was behind a tree in the backyard of a neighboring house.

Jensen鈥檚 partner, Officer James Zollo, told the dispatcher, 鈥淲e鈥檝e got shots fired over here.鈥� The dispatcher responded that they were trying to get all the officers on the same radio channel.

鈥淲e鈥檙e working on patching channels here,鈥� he said.

Ninety seconds later, the gunman rounded Jensen鈥檚 vehicle and shot the officer before being killed by Jensen and another city police officer, John Canestrare.

The incident unfolded so quickly that it鈥檚 not surprising there was some confusion about which radio channel to get all the officers on, told . 鈥淶ero to 100 very fast,鈥� he said.

To avoid those situations in the future, city police are working on a new protocol for when Syracuse officers answer calls outside the city, where dispatchers typically use other radio channels. Officers heading to a call outside the city will notify a supervisor to establish communication with the outside agency prior to arriving on the scene, Cecile said.

Julie Corn , commissioner of emergency communications and the Onondaga County 911 center, could not say when the new policy would take effect.

鈥淪PD is the best to answer that question on the timeline. We are only aware that that is something they are considering,鈥� she said.

As the shooting erupted, Jensen and other city officers were talking to one dispatcher. Hoosock and the other sheriff鈥檚 deputies were talking to another.

Frederick Cornelius, a former detective lieutenant in the Cayuga County Sheriff鈥檚 Office who now runs a private investigation firm, said 911 dispatchers should have moved more quickly to get city and county cops talking on the same channel.

鈥淭he long and the short of it seems like there was a 911 problem,鈥� he told .

Cornelius said he is not familiar with Onondaga County鈥檚 911 system, but read the AG鈥檚 report and offered insight into what the protocol should have been.

It was clear from the report that the two dispatchers speaking to Jensen and Hoosock were not talking with each other, Cornelius said. They should have been.

At one point, after officers heard a gun being loaded and took cover, Jensen asked his dispatcher to put the officers on a private radio channel that Syracuse police sometimes use. At about the same time, Hoosock asked a different dispatcher to switch the officers to a county channel that is often used in large emergency situations.

鈥淪omebody needed to pick a channel and have everybody on it,鈥� Cornelius said. He said the right person to do that, in this situation, was someone at the 911 center. When Jensen asked to switch to the private channel, one of the two dispatchers or a supervisor should have put everyone on the county radio channel, Cornelius said.

Cornelius said he wasn鈥檛 sure if having everyone on the same channel would have changed the outcome because Murphy fired so many rounds so quickly.

Corn said it is normal to initially have confusion on the radio during a major incident. Officers at the shooting requested a dedicated radio channel after roughly a minute on the scene and 鈥渢hey were set from there,鈥欌�� she said.

Corn said neither city nor county police raised any concerns about the April 14 incident.

鈥淭here was no issue with comms when all agencies debriefed post-event,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檝e talked to my partners and all were very content with the comms and the support we provided that day.鈥�

Sheriff Toby Shelley agreed that the 911 center was not at fault. Given the lightning-fast escalation from traffic ticket to shooting, it would be unreasonable to expect either the officers or the dispatchers to have coordinated better.

鈥淲e respond to such a mundane call that spirals out of control in seconds,鈥� Shelley said. 鈥淗ow are you going to get everything patched together, the different channels, and get everybody talking on the same channel in the time frame this went down?鈥�

In any case, Shelley said, it would be difficult for officers to switch their radio settings while they have their weapons drawn and are taking cover from a gunman.

Here鈥檚 a brief look at how fast things happened, as documented in the AG report. Five minutes of mayhem:

8:44:51 p.m.: Jensen and his partner, Zollo, arrive in their patrol car. A backup unit with officers John Canestrare and Benedict Rath arrives at the same time. Hoosock and sheriff鈥檚 deputies Jacob Barnaba and Adam Bezek are already at the scene.

8:45:22 p.m.: Jensen and Hoosock separately radio that it sounds like someone is racking a firearm and ask for backup. City officers shining a flashlight into the back of Murphy鈥檚 car spot two assault rifle magazines. All the officers take cover.

8:47:25 p.m.: Jensen attempts to call his dispatcher on the radio. He turns to his partner and says, 鈥淲hy is no one fucking answering?鈥�

8:48:13 p.m.: Murphy begins firing his weapon in several short bursts.

8:48:38 p.m.: Murphy fires again and strikes Hoosock, who is behind a tree in a neighbor鈥檚 backyard.

8:49:59 p.m.: Murphy moves from the back of the house to the front. He comes around Jensen鈥檚 patrol car and begins firing. Jensen moves toward the back of the car, while returning fire. Jensen is struck and falls.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e not thinking as you鈥檙e pulling up looking for a motor vehicle violation that somebody鈥檚 going to start shooting at you,鈥� said Brian Higgins, the former police chief in Bergen County, N.J. He is now an adjunct professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. 鈥淭hey weren鈥檛 really given a chance.鈥�

Higgins said the radio issues experienced by the officers are common. It is such an age-old concern that it was flagged by the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

鈥淩adio systems, frequencies, how to communicate,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very confusing.鈥�

County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said he had not read the attorney general鈥檚 report as of Thursday morning. But he said interagency communications have been a longstanding concern for all police agencies and deserve ongoing attention.

鈥淚f you have a multi-jurisdictional response, you鈥檝e got to be able to communicate,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he city鈥檚 got to communicate with the sheriff, who鈥檚 got to communicate with the city, who鈥檚 got to communicate with the town and village.鈥�

Unsurprisingly, the attorney general鈥檚 report concluded there was no cause to prosecute Officer Canestrare for shooting Murphy. Among other points, the report said:

• Hoosock, who was behind a tree in the backyard of a neighboring house, was struck twice by bullets fired by Murphy from his rear deck. Hoosock never fired his gun.
• About 90 seconds of silence passed before Murphy appeared in the street in front of his house and started firing at Jensen. Jensen returned fire but was fatally injured.
• The medical examiner recovered four bullets from Murphy鈥檚 body 鈥� one from Jensen鈥檚 gun and three from Canestrare鈥檚.
• At least twice during the mayhem, officers shouted to neighborhood residents to get back in their houses.

鈥�

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