7 NYPD Officers Fired 42 Rounds In Detective Death

Queens, NY – Officials say seven officers fired a total of 42 rounds during the chaotic scene that resulted in the friendly fire death of a New York Police Department detective.

Chief of Department Terence Monahan and Force Investigation Division Chief Kevin Maloney gave a briefing on Wednesday, the day after the bloodshed outside a cell phone store in Queens.

Det. Brian Simonsen, who died, and his partner, who was wounded, were among those who pulled the trigger.

Another officer, Sgt. Matthew Gorman, was shot in the leg. The shooting started as he and two uniformed officers retreated from the store when Ransom, 27, emerged from a back room and came at them, Chief of Department Terence Monahan said. Gorman is in stable condition.

“You have to understand, this happens in seconds,” Monahan said. “It goes from 0 to 60. You’re investigating a possible crime and all of a sudden someone is charging at you, pointing what you believe to be a firearm, simulating firing at you. It raises everything very quickly.”

Five officers captured parts of the scene on body cameras, Force Investigation Division Chief Kevin Maloney said. Investigators are also reviewing surveillance footage from the store. None of the video has been made public.

Simonsen should have been off Tuesday for a union meeting, but he opted to go to work so he could continue tracking a string of recent robberies, Detectives’ Endowment Association president Michael Palladino said.