NIAGARA FALLS, NY (WKBW) — The city of Niagara Falls says Niagara Falls Police were involved in a deadly shooting on the 900 block Niagara Avenue Thursday night.
Police say they responded to a call of shots being fired and found a man with a gun at the scene. Body camera video shows a woman approaching a female officer. She told the officer the 53-year-old man shot at her car.
The female officer and male officer told the man multiple times to drop his gun. At a press conference on Friday morning, Niagara Falls Superintendent of Police John Faso said the 53-year-old shot at the officers. Captain John Conti said three rounds were fired from his gun. He said the man shot at least one toward the female officer and narrowly missed her. The officers then shot back at least 10 rounds each, according to Conti.
The officers provided first aid while waiting for ambulances to arrive.
"They did exactly what they were supposed to do. Faced with a horrible, horrible situation," Faso said, "All I know is that he made that choice to fire at my officers and they took action that they needed to take."
The man was taken to Niagara Falls Memorial where he died. None of the officers were hurt. Faso said right now his officers are on paid administrative leave.
"They're doing OK, and we're gonna provide them with every resource they need to get them through this," he added.
Michael Rice, who lives in the area, said it feels like shootings in his community are a daily occurrence.
"There seems to be a little callus that's gone over people's morality over here," Rice said.
He said he would like to see more community involvement.
"Just to give pride and some sort of reconstruction to the community. A different paradigm that there's beauty, even a rose can grow in mud and dirt, " he said, "And when you don't have that you have everybody running awry.'
The Attorney General's Office and the Niagara Falls Crime Investigation are conducting two separate investigations into the deadly shootout.
