Name: Motorcyclist fatally struck by cops responding to false report of Brooklyn shooting
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Motorcyclist fatally struck by cops responding to false report of Brooklyn shooting

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AdvertisementBy New York Daily News and Transit ReporterJul 26, 2020 at 5:14 pmCops racing to respond to a 911 call for a Brooklyn shooting — that turned out to be unfounded — blasted through a red light and fatally struck a motorcyclist, authorities and witnesses said Sunday.A marked NYPD SUV was heading west on Metropolitan Ave. in Williamsburg flashing its emergency lights when its driver slammed into Delroy Morris, 37, on a motorcycle heading south on Driggs Ave. about 9:25 p.m. Saturday, authorities said.AdvertisementMorris was knocked from his bike and suffered severe head trauma. He was rushed to Bellevue Hospital but could not be saved.Police said the SUV had its sirens blaring, but a witness to the crash said it was only flashing its lights.Advertisement“It was a massive impact, they were both going really fast, obviously neither of them saw each other,” said Dex Sexton, 46, who was working at the nearby Woodhul Wine Bar.According to Sexton, Morris was launched nearly 50 feet.“You could hear the cop car revving into a higher gear as he went through the intersection,” he said. “The cop’s lights were on, but the sirens were not ... If he squawked his siren once down the block, that’s one thing, but the sirens were not blaring.”Video obtained by the Daily News shows the police vehicle drive around a truck stopped at the light, and barrel into the intersection and into the path of the unsuspecting motorcyclist.“He ended up going into the poles on the sidewalk,” said Keith Winters, 22, who witnessed the crash while working the host stand at The Butcher’s Daughter, a nearby restaurant. “I saw the cop car go past the red light.”Winters said the motorcycle rider clearly had the green light before he was blindsided. An NYPD spokesman could not say who had the right of way, saying the detail was a “part of the investigation” into the crash.Police said the cops in the SUV were responding to a 911 call for a man shot at Metropolitan and Wythe avenues. They were three blocks from that scene when they struck Morris. As the officers rushed to the scene, police started getting different details from the 911 caller, who now claimed someone was bleeding after getting punched in the face, and though no one was shot a crowd was gathering and someone in it was carrying a gun.AdvertisementWhen police arrived at the scene, they found no assault and marked the call “unfounded.”Shavonn Tatum, Morris’ older sister, said her brother was beloved “from the West Coast to the East Coast.”Tatum described her brother, who worked at Lutheran NYU all through the peak months of coronavirus, as someone who liked to give back, and had a sense of community.“He was working in transport and at the registrar’s, dealing with all the COVID patients,” said Tatum. “He was there every day. I don’t think he took one day off.”Morris had two sons, ages 5 and 14, and worked in a hospital morgue, his cousin, Sha Tatum, 29, said. He was also an aspiring movie actor, she said.“We’re in shock,” she said. “The family is just in shock.”AdvertisementTatum stared at the intersection Sunday night, a look of disbelief on her face, and asked, “Is it real?”WeekdaysCatch up on the day’s top five stories every weekday afternoon. &gt; Amanda Lundquist, 31, was eating dinner at a sidewalk table at The Butcher’s Daughter during the crash.“The speed that the SUV was going was so fast, there wouldn’t have been enough time to hear the siren and or see the lights even,” said Lundquist. “Even if he had seen the cop coming, they would have had a collision because the cop was going very fast.”Bystanders who passed by the aftermath of the crash said the motorcycle ended up wedged beneath a black Mercedes sedan after the crash.“The bike was under the car, sandwiched underneath it, between the car and the sidewalk,” said Zac, 25, who lives nearby the scene and declined to provide his last name. “There was the most cops I’ve probably ever seen,” said Emile Hirsch, 25, who also lives nearby. Advertisement“On the way back we saw a girl with her hand to her heart, looking upset,” said Kellon Johnston, 25. “I went to bed around 1 a.m. and saw lights flashing through the window till then.”“You could feel it was something dramatic,” Hirsch added. Advertisement

AdvertisementBy New York Daily News and Transit ReporterJul 26, 2020 at 5:14 pmCops racing to respond to a 911 call for a Brooklyn shooting — that turned out to be unfounded — blasted through a red light and fatally struck a motorcyclist, authorities and witnesses said Sunday.A marked NYPD SUV was heading west on Metropolitan Ave. in Williamsburg flashing its emergency lights when its driver slammed into Delroy Morris, 37, on a motorcycle heading south on Driggs Ave. about 9:25 p.m. Saturday, authorities said.AdvertisementMorris was knocked from his bike and suffered severe head trauma. He...

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Motorcyclist fatally struck by cops responding to false report of Brooklyn shooting

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