The incident began on the morning of January 19, when Shulab Abdur Raheem (24), Dawd A. Rahman (22), Yusef Abdallah Almussadig (23), and Salih Ali Abdullah (26)[1] robbed the John and Al's sporting goods store to acquire weapons for self-defense.
NYPD officers responding to the robbery confronted them, sparking a shootout followed by a lengthy standoff when the perpetrators retreated back into the store and took twelve hostages.
The NYPD used crisis negotiation techniques pioneered by detective and psychologist Harvey Schlossberg to peacefully ensure the release and rescue of all twelve hostages and the surrender and arrest of all four perpetrators.
[4] Harvey Schlossberg had recently been promoted from traffic officer to the NYPD's head psychologist after Police Commissioner Patrick V. Murphy learned he had a doctorate in clinical psychology.
At the time, the NYPD did not have a fixed protocol for hostage situations, but recent incidents such as the 1971 Attica Prison riot and 1972 Munich massacre made developing one more of a pressing concern.
[5] Schlossberg promoted a more introspective approach, believing that forming a bond with the hostage-takers, analyzing their psyche, attempting to find solutions to their problems, and focusing on rescuing the hostages could lead to a peaceful resolution.
[4] He also believed in using patience and delays to draw out the standoff, which "allowed more time for the criminals to make mistakes and, just as crucially, to develop a rapport with their victims, leaving the hostage-takers less likely to harm them".
[5] A day prior to the incident, on January 18, seven Hanafi Sunni Muslims were murdered by the Black Mafia in Washington, D.C. after Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, an associate of Malcolm X and a family member of the victims, voiced strong opposition to the Nation of Islam.
[4] The perpetrators of the January 19 hostage-taking, all of whom were African American Sunni Muslims and had also voiced their opposition to the Nation of Islam,[6] later claimed in court that the D.C. massacre was what spurred them to acquire weapons, in the event they had to defend themselves from a similar attack.
[4] When the first responding officers arrived at 5:42 pm, the perpetrators exited the store on Melrose Street using owner Rosenblum as a human shield and exchanged fire with them.
[4][9] The NYPD opted to use Schlossberg's crisis negotiation techniques to reason with the perpetrators and use patience to coerce them into peacefully releasing the hostages and surrendering.
[2] This was against the wishes of numerous police officers at the scene who sought retribution for Gilroy's death, as well as another NYPD psychologist who recommended an assault on the store using tear gas.
[2] Other rescues of uninvolved bystanders were also conducted around the same time; for instance, an elevated train with its lights off was sent to extract stranded passengers at a nearby platform before the line was promptly shut down.
[2][4] Around 4:00 pm, Dr. Thomas W. Matthews, head of the National Economic Growth and Reconstruction Organization and Interfaith Hospital,[11] arrived with a nurse, having been summoned by the NYPD.
[9][11] Matthews and the nurse returned forty minutes later with the names and telephone numbers of the nine remaining hostages; around this time, the sandwiches and cigarettes requested by the perpetrators arrived and were placed outside the store.
[9][12] Schlossberg told his superiors that if all else failed, they could simply let the perpetrators go in exchange for the hostages' safety, reasoning police could "always catch the criminals later", which Ward agreed with.
Matthews stated that Almussadig had a fever, and was potentially suffering from blood poisoning and an infection in his intestines, with a chance of death if he did not receive emergency treatment.
[9][11] Reviewing the information from the perpetrators up to that point, Schlossberg deduced they "had not really formulated their own ideologies", and that their attempts at tying the robbery to vague political and religious causes were merely rationalization.
During the early morning, barbed wire was placed on Melrose Street to prevent attempts at fleeing, and the NYPD's Aviation Unit took aerial photographs of the store for planning.
[4] Rumors spread surrounding the incident, including that the perpetrators were members of the Black Liberation Army or that the police were waiting for an armored train to arrive on the elevated railway.
The crowd apparently viewed the standoff as little more than an entertaining spectacle, with some saying it was "better than the Super Bowl", and several people became increasingly frustrated with the inaction over time, throwing bottles and attempting to breach police lines.
[2] While the perpetrators went to investigate the sounds of the ESU moving the drilling equipment into the furniture store next door, the hostages broke through the wall and climbed the stairs to the roof.
However, Robert M. McKiernan, president of the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, reported the majority of the NYPD was otherwise accepting of how the standoff was handled and described the response from the 90th Precinct as "a very understandable personal reaction", though he also felt the perpetrators should have received the death penalty.
[12] Gilroy's funeral was held at 9:30 am on January 23 at St. Cecilia's Roman Catholic Church in Greenpoint, and he was buried at First Cavalry Cemetery in Long Island City.