Hold Your Fire

I had a bad feeling about it.

My wife did. She didn't even know what we was gonna do.

She begged me not to leave the house that day.

Got in front of me at the door, pullin' on me, crying.

I said, "I'll be right back."

That was my last warning.

Wintertime. January.

A very cold Friday night.

Two guys walk over to the counter,

ask me to pick up something from the bottom shelf,

I don't remember what it was.

I picked it up and when I stood up,

the guy had a...

.25 automatic pointed at me.

Right on the gun counter there was

a picture of my daughter receiving her communion.

I says, "Take it easy,

I want to get home to see my family tonight."

The little guy had a handgun.

I'm lookin' at the gun and I'm sayin' to myself

that I thought it was a pellet gun.

Then he pulls the trigger and, bang, into--

and into the shelf.

I swore to myself at that point there

that if I get a chance to kill ya, I'm gonna kill ya.

- -

Come out with your hands up!

Okay, hold it!

Get outta here quick!

A story of violence

inside a sporting goods store in Brooklyn.

Four terrorists had been surprised inside the store

on Friday afternoon

when police arrived in response to a robbery alarm.

It was a store with outdoors equipment

the usual camping stuff,

and then the guns.

The guns are what it was really all about.

They were people who wanted them,

and they took innocent people inside the store

and made hostages of them.

Holy crap.

Twelve hostages inside a sporting goods store

loaded with firearms.

This was the Titanic.

The moon landing.

I'm never gonna forget the siege.

It's permanently etched in your-- in your heart

and in your soul.

The lessons learned of this case

were so revolutionary for law enforcement.

Out of this tragedy, amazingly,

this is the birthplace of hostage negotiation.

It's scary.

So cops usually wind up overreacting.

Police want to be macho.

Lob in the gas and storm the place.

"Kill 'em all! They're all evil."

No. I believe in talking.

Everything is resolvable by talking.

The leader, he wanted five shotguns.

They gave me a duffel bag.

12-guage ammo in the bag, I'm filling it up,

filling it up and filling up.

And I turned around, I said to him, I says,

"Can I ask you a question now? Who's gonna carry this bag?"

Couldn't even drag it.

He says, "You just keep filling it."

I filled it up, the guy grabbed it by the handle.

Can't move it.

You're not too smart.

The only thing that stopped them from gettin' out is

someone outside called the cops.

There was a cop lookin' in the doorway.

When he seen the rifles,

the guys eyeballs, I'll never forget it.

"Call for backup.

"Patrol units responding.

"Call on walkie-talkie.

N- with a gun.”

This had to be terrifying for her

to have to go through something like that.

For my mother to hear the cop say that.

To fear the cops.

She probably didn't even know

guns was in that building.

She wouldn't have gone in there.

My dad needed a wallet.

John & Al is right when you come off the train.

My mother paid for it.

Few more seconds,

my mother would have walked out that door.

The gunmen locked the door right in front of her face.

That's what it was.

A wallet.

So we had white police officers, mostly, uh,

on the inner perimeter.

So that might have been some considerations as well.

We thought we had four members of the Black Liberation Army

inside the store.

It was a very radical group,

very violent and dangerous group.

Many police officer assassinations under their belt.

Emotions are running high.

The BLA was ambushing the police officers.

You had a blue uniform on, you were a target.

I was a rookie.

I remember like it was yesterday.

You're dealing with lowlifes that don't care.

They hate the police.

No.

They didn't know who we were.

I don't dislike police.

They thought all this crazy stuff about us.

They thought we were black revolutionaries.

We were not.

I worked for the Transit, selling tokens in the booth.

Dawud is a college student, outstanding artist.

Salih is a TV and radio repairman.

Mussidiq is a carpenter.

We're not unemployed, dope fiends,

and thieves and crooks.

We're squares.

I was terrified.

I was like an understudy to Shu'aib.

You know, he was like my mentor at the time.

You know.

He was living on his own, you know, I--

With his wife, you know, I was still with my mother,

using his situation as an example to follow.

On the way there, I was hoping somebody would,

like, just say, okay, like...

maybe we should, like, just scrap this and like, but, uh--

I didn't-- I couldn't come up with any, you know,

alternative solution,

so I just, more or less, went along with it, you know?

A lot of regrets.

I observed one police officer in front of the store.

You don't need to take it any further, you know,

they're-- they're here, you know,

we-- we're through.

You know, we should have surrendered at that time,

but, uh...

my co-defendants tried to make an exit from the store.

That's when things went haywire.

We made that fateful decision.

To get these guns. To protect our families.

In retrospect, it was a fool's idea

to think we can get out the back door.

We opened the door.

There were cops everywhere.

Super hyper. Payin' attention to everybody.

Lookin' there, lookin' there.

Who's the good guy? Who's the bad guy?

Who do you trust?

How you gonna say, "Drop the weapon,”

but when you go to drop it, they tell you,

"Don't move. Freeze. Drop the weapon.

Don't move. Freeze. Hand me the gun.”

You know, I mean-- What do you do?

I'm ready to surrender. You won't let me surrender.

That was how we perceived the situation.

I'm trying to comply,

passing off my rifle to this detective.

The other officers interpreted it as a threat

because they told me not to move.

That's what led to them firing the first shot.

Does it matter who fired first?

There are some people

that need a damn beating.

You know why? You can't talk to ‘em.

You talk til you're blue in the face.

They want a physical confrontation.

That's what they want.

And that's their mentality.

And a guy like that needs his ass kicked.

New York City's always had a hard, ugly relationship

between the police and the people--

community of color.

All my life, police was killing black people.

I know-- I know for a fact...

that cops aren't racist.

Yet, there was this perception

that cops are gonna brutalize Blacks.

The police were seen as oppressors.

Corrupt.

Brutal.

The police officer's stress is elevated

‘cause you're always on.

When emotional levels are up in-- in a person,

then their rationality level is down.

It's kinda like that angle effect.

Emotion. Rationality.

Police officers become, sometimes, judge, jury,

and, uh, sometimes when the circumstances, uh,

you know, present themselves,

executioner.

There's this whiteness on the police department,

not properly trained,

fearful of being in neighborhoods