By Michael Balsamo and Jake Pearson
Associated Press
NEW YORK — A man who fired a gun inside a bar and later fired at two police officers chasing him on foot was fatally shot by other officers, authorities said Thursday.
Two police officers fired five shots at Jonathan Efraim on Wednesday night, hitting him twice in the left armpit and side after he pointed a loaded 9mm handgun at them, police said. Efraim had moments earlier fired at least one shot at two other police officers chasing him, authorities said. A gun was recovered at the scene.
Preliminary findings suggest the fatal shooting was justified, police spokesman Stephen Davis said.
The police had responded to multiple calls involving Efraim at his Staten Island home from November 1998 to September 2014. He also had been arrested multiple times in New York and Woodbridge, New Jersey, on charges ranging from assault to criminal mischief and menacing on a police officer.
Surveillance video shows Efraim walking into the Queens bar, where he stayed for about an hour, sitting next to a regular customer and striking up a conversation, Davis said. The bartender apparently sensed that the regular customer was uncomfortable, interjecting by telling him his cab was outside, Davis said.
That’s when Efraim shouted, “No one’s going anywhere!” before firing a single shot into the bar’s ceiling, Davis said.
Police responding to 911 calls around 9 p.m. followed Efraim down a nearby street, where he fired at them. Two officers chased him down another block, firing after he pointed his weapon at them.
Efraim served in the Marine Corps from June 2004 to March 2007 as a private but wasn’t deployed, a Marine Corps spokeswoman said. He was tried and found guilty of unauthorized absence, confined for 120 days and ordered to pay $700 per month for four months before receiving a bad-conduct discharge.
No one answered the door at his Staten Island home, and a phone number there wasn’t in service.
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