Governor launches probe into hospital’s handling of gunman

The woman called at about 10 p.m. Tuesday to say Alexander Bonds “was paranoid and acting erratically,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said.

Officers were dispatched to look for Bonds on the streets of a Bronx neighbourhood, but the 34-year-old ex-convict evaded them, police said.

At about 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Bonds walked up to an RV-like mobile command unit several blocks north of where police had searched for him and fired a shot through a passenger-side window, striking and killing Officer Miosotis Familia. Two other officers later shot Bonds to death.

Boyce said the girlfriend told police that she had taken Bonds for a psychiatric evaluation on July 1 but he was released after about an hour. Investigators who are trying to determine a motive for the killing also found antidepressant and anti-psychotic medications in his apartment.

St. Barnabas Hospital said it welcomes any investigation and will fully co-operate.

“We believe all mental health procedures and safeguards were properly followed in the hospital’s evaluation of Mr. Bond during the 7 to 8-hour period he was observed in our emergency room on July 1,” hospital spokesman Steven Clark said in a statement, which incorrectly referred to the killer as Bond, not Bonds.

Last year, Bonds ranted in a Facebook video about law officers killing and abusing people and warned them to leave him alone or “we gonna do something.”

“I’m not playing, Mr. Officer. I don’t care about 100 police watching this,” Bonds said, adding: “It’s time for people to wisen up.”

Police Commissioner James O’Neill said Familia “is dead for one reason and one reason only and that is Alexander Bonds and his hatred of police.”

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This story has been corrected to show the shooting was at 12:30 a.m., not p.m.

The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Governor launches probe into hospital’s handling of gunman

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