Jan 29, 2008 6:00 am US/Eastern
Witnesses Describe Bizarre Moments Before Cop Kill
Mount Vernon Officer Told Repeatedly To Put Down Gun
Reporting
Lou Young
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (CBS) ―
On Monday night new witnesses started forward to tell their accounts of what happened Friday night when Westchester County police gunned down a fellow brother in blue.
Tragedy has five faces -- the four county cops who shot a fellow officer dead -- and that off-duty officer who fell under their bullets.
One woman, identified as "Cathy," told CBS HD she saw Mount Vernon police officer Christopher Ridley trying to subdue another man, but to her it looked like a routine fight until a handgun dropped and a shot rang out.
"They just kept fighting and I guess that's when the gun fell out of his pants or something. I didn't see it because I had my back to him … that's the shot that almost hit me in the back," "Cathy" said.
Officer Ridley had already gone inside the building looking for help with the suspect. The gunshot, though, changed everything.
The four county cops came up on a scene they didn't understand, and apparently misread.
"They were telling him drop the gun, drop the gun and apparently he seemed to be disoriented, like he wasn't even listening. He was just aiming the gun at the guy on the ground. That seemed to be his target," "Cathy" said.
At that point the die was cast.
"Cops said freeze to both of them and I told him they are going to take you out if you pick up that gun again. I told him that and he didn't do that. I actually saw him even before he hit the ground," a witness identified as "Brian" said.
The officer's distraught mother is trying to understand how a hero died like a criminal.
"Someone murdered my son," Felita Bouche said.
The tragedy has been compounded with the knowledge that one of county cops – Det. Robin Martin -- once worked at the Mount Vernon Police Department and has known Officer Ridley's family for years.
"This incident has been just incredibly difficult for all of our officers and perhaps even a bit more so for Det. Martin," Westchester County Police Commissioner Thomas Belfiore said.
Martin knows Ridley's father quite well. On Tuesday, the Mount Vernon Police Department will posthumously promote Ridley to detective.
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