New York cops have a habit of emptying their guns when using deadly force. I wish there was another way of immobolizing suspects. But I would be the last one too put myself in the shoes of the NYPD.

November 13, 2007 — A Brooklyn teen - wielding only a hairbrush - was killed last night in a hail of up to 15 bullets fired by cops who had been called by his mother, who told them he had a gun, police sources said.

Just before five cops opened fire, the 18-year-old shouted, “I got a gun!” and walked toward cops, the sources said.

They quoted witnesses as also telling officers, “He’s got a gun.”

No weapon was recovered.

Police said the youth, identified by sources as Khiel Coppin, had a history of mental illness and that his mother - who was there when he was shot - had tried to have him hospitalized earlier in the day.

Witnesses told The Post that Coppin - whose street name was “The Little G” - was holding the hairbrush and had his hands up when he was shot at 7:15 p.m. outside 590 Gates Ave. in the Medgar Evers housing project in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

But police sources said the officers opened fire after he reached under his shirt and pulled out a black object that cops later acknowledged was a hairbrush.

He died at Woodhull Hospital. His body was riddled with about a dozen bullet holes, some of them exit wounds.

The shooters were two sergeants and a detective from the 79th Precinct and two housing cops, the sources said.

Officers had gone to the building after Coppin’s distraught mom called 911, telling the operator that her son was armed. He was heard in the background saying he had a gun, police said.

Source: NYP

Filed under: Brooklyn, News, Teen, police