Posted by ChasinDatPaper on December 19, 2009 at 12:00pm
Video After The JumpNew York State Police have released dramatic new video footage of the January 10th gun battle that shut down I-90 for hours and ended when a sniper's bullet killed 22-year-old Darrel Brown of Hartford, Connecticut.
Investigators say Brown was high on PCP and running from Connecticut authorities when he opened fire on police with an AK-47 from the back seat of a cab that had been pulled over in East Greenbush.
The new footage shows the state trooper talking to the cab driver and Brown.
When the trooper realizes that Brown is armed, the trooper runs from the cab.
The cab driver frantically waves his hands out the window before he runs from the vehicle.
The video documents the first nine minutes of the nearly hour-long shoot-out.
The footage begins when the trooper makes a U-turn to pursue the speeding cab and ends with one of Brown's bullets hits the camera in the dashboard of the cruiser.
Trooper Maureen Tuffey says PCP use may explain erratic behavior in people.
"You can't reason with them," she tells us. "You can't get them down on the ground. You can't make any kind of sense out of them."
Police say Brown was a known member of the Bloods street gang.
Hartford Police wanted to question him about a carjacking and assault that had happened the night before the deadly shoot-out.
"It appears that he was fleeing to the Capital Region," Trooper Tuffey tells us. "He had one or two people here he knew. He did not even tell the cab driver what his final destination was. He was giving his journey incrementally as they went along."
Three minutes elapsed between when the trooper and cabbie run for safety and when Brown first opens fire.
Police believe Brown was fumbling with the lock on his gun.
That could have saved the lives of the cabbie and trooper.
Witnesses told police that Brown yelled "shoot me" and "kill me."
Investigators will never know exactly why Brown opened fire.
"Whether he just gave up hope and decided to go down in a blaze of fire or it was a definite suicide by cop," says Trooper Tuffey. "It's difficult for us to actually pinpoint that."
Police never cited the cab driver for speeding.
Source: Fox23News
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