FREEPORT, N.Y. (WPIX) -
A judge has sentenced a Long Island man - convicted of pointing a loaded handgun at officers during an early morning street confrontation - to a seven-year prison term.
Frantz Byer, 22, had been convicted in January of criminal possession of a weapon and menacing a police officer. According to Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, during the encounter last year, officers "were forced to discharge their service weapons, striking Byer six times in the thigh, back and buttocks."
On July 14, 2007, Byer and a group of his friends were walking east on Leonard Ave. in Freeport when a concerned resident called police and told them a man was carrying what looked to be a handgun.
When two Freeport officers arrived they ordered Byer to freeze, but instead he and his friends began running away. When Byer stopped in front of a home on Leonard Ave. he reached into his pocket, pulled out a black handgun and pointed it at one of the officers, said prosecutors. That officer then fired seven shots at Byer.
A second officer, fired two times, when he saw Byer pointing a gun at his colleague.
A black revolver, found at the scene, was linked to Byer by his DNA on the bullets and gun fragments.
Frantz Byer, 22, had been convicted in January of criminal possession of a weapon and menacing a police officer. According to Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, during the encounter last year, officers "were forced to discharge their service weapons, striking Byer six times in the thigh, back and buttocks."
On July 14, 2007, Byer and a group of his friends were walking east on Leonard Ave. in Freeport when a concerned resident called police and told them a man was carrying what looked to be a handgun.
When two Freeport officers arrived they ordered Byer to freeze, but instead he and his friends began running away. When Byer stopped in front of a home on Leonard Ave. he reached into his pocket, pulled out a black handgun and pointed it at one of the officers, said prosecutors. That officer then fired seven shots at Byer.
A second officer, fired two times, when he saw Byer pointing a gun at his colleague.
A black revolver, found at the scene, was linked to Byer by his DNA on the bullets and gun fragments.
