By COLLEEN LONG, Associated Press Writer
NY Times: Uniformed Eyes and Ears on the Front Lines
NEW YORK — A gunman shot and killed a pizza parlor employee and two unarmed volunteer police officers who pursued him, then was shot to death by other police officers in a series of shootings in a crowded Manhattan neighborhood Wednesday, the mayor said.
 Emergency responders gather around the body of the unidentified gunman in New York’s Greenwich Village section Wednesday night. |
The bedlam began around 9 p.m., when the gunman went into the pizzeria, asked for a menu and then shot an employee 15 times in the back, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
The two auxiliary officers _ civilian volunteers who wear uniforms, are unarmed and help patrol streets _ followed the killer briefly before he turned his gun on them, the mayor said.
“Tonight was a horrible night for the New York Police Department and for our city,” he said.
The gunman, who was wearing a fake beard and was carrying a bag full of ammunition, had to cross a street to shoot the auxiliary officers, Bloomberg said. He was killed by regular police officers who rushed to the scene.
The shootouts took place outside a strip of busy restaurants and bars near New York University in a crowded section of Manhattan’'s Greenwich Village.
 New York police officers enter De Marco’s Pizzeria & Restaurant Thursday morning. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) |
Restaurant worker Nikola Simic said he saw police officers swarm toward the middle of the street.
“Then we heard a shooting that was like a good five minutes,” Simic said.
Josh Drimmer was inside a bar at the time of the shooting.
“Hearing that many shots in a row,” he said, “it was war. It felt like that for a hot second.”
Witness Darren McNamara, a tourist from London, said he heard two bursts and thought it was someone shattering the front window of a shop, but it turned out to be gunfire.
Police cordoned off several blocks and escorted area residents to their homes.