'He's here': Footage shows deadly gunfight between abusive husband and NYPD officers from LI
Body camera footage in deadly shooting by NYPD officers from Long Island. Officers Christopher Wells and Joseph Murphy, assigned to the Domestic Violence Unit in the 105th Precinct, are seen in the Queens home just before the shooting began on Nov. 24. Credit: NYPD
One moment, two NYPD officers from Long Island are shown helping a battered woman in Queens figure out how to protect herself from her violent husband: Change the locks on the house? Move elsewhere with the kids?
Regardless, she was told, he’d be arrested, but until then …
"If you can get a locksmith here, within, you know, as soon as possible, that’s a good idea. Or, where does your sister live?" Police Officer Joseph Murphy asks, according to 5 minutes and 13 seconds of his body-worn camera footage that the NYPD released Friday and posted on YouTube.
"Oh, he’s coming. That’s him. He’s here. Ooh. Ooh!" the woman says, her voice rising to a panicked scream.
The next moment, the man pushes open the glass door, storms in without saying a word, and starts firing what would be 11 times — wounding the officers, who return fire and kill him. The footage, from each officer’s body camera, shows the chaos of the attack. Blood is seen splattered on the floor of the home.
The footage was disclosed under a New York City policy, announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio in June during worldwide protests against the police, requiring that such footage be released of shootings and other altercations where officers use violent force, and injury or death occurs. Previously, the NYPD had wide latitude to choose whether to make footage public.
During the gunfight, around 12:45 p.m. on Nov. 24, Murphy, of Nassau, and his partner, Officer Christopher Wells, of Suffolk, both assigned to the 105th Precinct Domestic Violence Unit, fire a total of 24 shots at the husband, Rondell Goppy, 41, according to a written narrative on the YouTube video.
The body-camera footage was recorded outside and inside the home, on 179th Street near 146th Road in the Springfield Gardens neighborhood. Also included is the home’s surveillance footage, which shows Goppy barging in from outside.
The officers had gone to the home with the woman about 2½ hours after she went to the precinct to file a domestic-violence-assault complaint against her husband, a peace officer with the city university system.
Rondell Goppy, killed in a shootout with NYPD officers from Long Island on Nov. 24, was armed with a Glock Model 22.40 caliber firearm and a Smith & Wesson Model MP Shield 9 mm firearm, both of which he was licensed to carry. Credit: NYPD
He legally possessed the Glock Model 22 .40-caliber firearm and one from Smith & Wesson, Model M&P Shield 9 mm, used in the shooting.
The officers' bullets struck Goppy 11 times — in the upper-left chest, left flank, lower-left back, left foot, and right foot, "resulting in his demise," according to the NYPD’s narrative on the video. Both officers suffered injuries — Wells was struck with a bullet in his right thigh, suffering a fractured femur; Murphy hurt both hands and required surgery, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said at the time. Both were discharged from the hospital within days, in time for Thanksgiving.
The woman, whose name was not disclosed, was not hurt in the shooting.
Newsday reported at the time that, despite a history of domestic violence, the NYPD had returned three guns to Goppy. Investigators were reportedly scrutinizing the decision to return the firearms, Newsday reported. An update on that part of the investigation was not available.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
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