French Connection

French man shot and killed by New York Detective Sunday Late Sunday Afternoon

A long police chase ended in death for a French man on Sunday at 4:08 p.m.  Detective Jimmy Doyle of the New York Police Department killed the 36 year old man with one shot of a gun at the 15th Street Station after following his train from 35th Street Station.

Pierre Jeantot of Nice, France was suspected of working for a French drug kingpin in the city.  The man is also currently under investigation for possibly being involved with a crime involving a heroin shipment between France and New York City.

Jeantot had reportedly shot at the detective from a rooftop, which he quickly fled from after shooting and killing a woman walking by.  Police officers quickly made it to the top of the building, where they found an automatic rifle and many shell casings.

The chase involved Jeantot hijacking the train while Detective Doyle followed it in a commandeered car. 

According to the New York Police Department and several eyewitnesses, the eventful afternoon began with a gunshot from the top of an apartment building located at 1767 W. 57th Avenue.  All of a sudden, according to witness Tori Roche, 19, a woman who was pushing a stroller went down on the ground and appeared dead, while the detective went and hid under a tree for cover from the gunshots.  

Roche said that the detective was shot at again but was luckily not hit.  After 5 shots were fired, the gunman was done shooting, but babies were still crying from the loud bang of the gun, and people were screaming.  Detective Doyle quickly got up and scooted across the building and up the stairs to find the gunman, but he had escaped too quickly.

According to Roche, the gunman had been down on the street when the detective spotted him from the top of the apartment building.  She saw the detective disappear down the stairs quickly to try and catch Jeantot, but it was too late, he was already headed toward the train station.

According to a witness on the train, Sean Loucks, 23, the train with Jeantot was just as frightening and eventful.   Loucks said the gunman got on the train and started running through the carts as a man on the train who appeared to be either a police officer or a worker caught up to him, but the gunman quickly turned around and shot him in the leg.  The man went down to the ground instantly, according to the witness.

Loucks said that the gunman made it to the end of the carts and into the one with the conductor.  Jeantot reportedly put the gun to the conductors head and told him not to stop at the next stop, which Loucks believed to be the stop at 25th Avenue.  The conductor followed instruction and continued past the stop, while many people standing and waiting for the train looked angry and suspicious as to why there train went past them.  

On the train, Jeantot tried to make an escape and began trying to find a way out.  He ran back through the carts while shooting another police officer on the train in the chest on the way, and killing him.  The train also collided with another train soon after.  The gunman hit his head on the side of the train when the two trains collided and lost his gun somewhere in the cart.  

The gunman reportedly finished his train ride after escaping through a back door.

According to eyewitness Meghan Haughton, 22, while the gunman was on the train, detective Doyle was chasing the train in a reddish colored car through the streets of New York City.  She said that the detective was driving recklessly trying to keep an eye on where the train was at all times.

Haughton said that the detective was swerving through all kinds of traffic, and hit 2 cars while he was at it, but he kept on going.  The witness also mentioned a crazy amount of beeping done during the chase by the detective.  

According to witness Lauren Lawrence, the shooter was at the top of the stairs when the detective finally caught up with him once he was off the train.  Lawrence claimed that the detective was standing at the bottom of the stairs and looked at him in a calm manor before shooting him. 

The gunman quickly went rolling down the staircase as the detective stumbled onto the bottom of the stairs.  

The gunman was officially killed, after shooting and killing multiple people through the afternoon from the apartment building to the train.  

Detective Jimmy Doyle shot him with one shot of a .38 caliber service revolver.  The force used by Doyle was justified under the circumstances of what happened throughout the afternoon, as it is suspected that Jeantot was assigned to assassinate the detective earlier in the afternoon during the first shooting.

Police found Jeantot’s .44 magnum revolver gun on the train, which was recovered from the cart the man was in after the two trains had collided.  

This case is currently still under thorough investigation.  More information will be released once it is all unfolded.