Police Commissioner James O’Neill stuck to his guns Monday over the cop shooting of a 66-year-old mentally ill woman in The Bronx, still insisting that the department failed in its handling of the fatal incident.
He added to reporters that he could withstand the withering criticism he’s been getting from police-union leaders over his comments, which have been called grossly premature considering that the sergeant who fired the fatal shot hasn’t even been interviewed by the department.
“I’ve been in this business a long time. I have pretty thick skin,” the top cop said when asked about criticism from.Sergeants Benevolent Association President Ed Mullins and Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch.
Mullins said during his Sunday radio interview that O’Neill was too quick to criticize the police department and had been “neutered” by Mayor de Blasio.
“I’m OK with the criticism,” O’Neill said. “I know how I’ve served the city for the last 33 and a half, almost 34, years. So if the president of the SBA union wants to personalize things, then so be it. That’s up to him.”
O’Neill had lobbed criticism at his department at an anti-crime organization meeting Wednesday, the morning after Deborah Danner was shot and killed by Sgt. Hugh Barry, declaring that the department had “failed.” Barry was stripped of his gun and badge.
“I spoke about this at the Citizens Crime Commission,” O’Neill said Monday. “What I stated was that we failed as an agency. I think it’s important that any time we receive a 911 call with somebody that’s in need of help and we respond and we don’t do the best job we can do and they end up dead, I think it’s incumbent upon me as a police commissioner to make sure that that never happens again.”
O’Neill said Barry hadn’t been interviewed by the NYPD at the request of Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark.
“The DA’s office asked us not to conduct the interview because there’s an ongoing criminal investigation,” O’Neill said.