NYPD officers shot and killed a man with a knife in
midtown Manhattan last week Wednesday morning. The man that was killed was
identified by police as 46-year-old Garry Conrad Jr. According to police, Conrad
had become very aggressive and belligerent while trying to buy a beer at Food
Emporium on West 49th street and Eighth avenue around 8:30 a.m.
Police were alerted of Conrad’s behavior, and when
officers arrived on the scene, violence began to spill out on the very busy
Manhattan streets. The perpetrator and an officer got into a scuffle, and while
both were on the ground, the four-inch knife that belonged to Conrad fell out
of his pocket. Conrad would go on to injure the officer. Then after, everything
came to a halt as police demanded him to drop the knife.
After continuous demands by police, it went on deaf
ears. Officers then began to let off rounds of bullets; nine shots to be exact,
which then killed the suspect on the scene. Remind you, this is going on in
rush hour in Manhattan, where there are a ton of tourist in the area and locals
trying to get to work. So I can just imagine how scared, surprised and terrified
onlookers were.
This story goes way beyond a man being shot and killed
for his attack on a police officer with a knife. It was reported that Garry
Conrad Jr. was a mentally ill individual. So this comes as no surprise that a
man of his capacity would wield a knife at officers. We as Americans are seeing
it more often than not that mental illness has become very prevalent in the 21st
century.
The growth of people that have a mental illness, the
numbers are just staggering. This topic isn’t talked about much in the media,
as people try to cover it up and think that this problem doesn’t exist in our
country. My concerns are the individuals that have a mental illness across the
nation and not properly treated; crime, violence and the intent to harm would definitely
rise.
The question remains, and many are wondering where is
the money going to? Tax payers are in a cloud when it comes to the resources
that are supposed to help people with mental illness. If you work or live in
New York City, the streets are filled with mentally ill people, and it’s a bit frightening
at times just to be in their presence because you don’t know what their next
move might be.
I do hope within the next few years that changes be
made by congress to provide more financial assistance in helping people that
are living with mental illness. If that happens to be medication, providing
housing and food, that’s always a great start to change. What’s currently in
place isn’t working, and we want to have rapid change. It’s in the best
interest of the safety of the American people.
