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Police Kill Teen Holding Gun to Girlfriend's Head in Bronx, NYPD Says

By  Ben Fractenberg Murray Weiss and Aidan Gardiner | June 10, 2015 9:38am | Updated on June 10, 2015 4:43pm

 The officers were responding to a domestic violence call when the teen shot at them, police said.
Police Kill Teen Holding Gun to Girlfriend's Head in Bronx, NYPD Says
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THE BRONX — Police fatally shot a man who held a gun to the head of his ex-girlfriend as she screamed, "Help me! He's going to kill me!" before turning the weapon on them in her Fordham apartment, officials said.

Isaiah Hampton, 19, came to the apartment building of his ex-girlfriend, also 19, at 2000 Valentine Ave., near East Burnside Avenue, about 8 a.m. Wednesday and immediately started attacking her, sources said.

He had her at gunpoint with his .38-caliber revolver in an elevator up to the fourth floor, witnesses told police. At some point, he also hit her above the eye with the butt of his revolver, police said.

Neighbors called 911 when they heard her screaming about how he had a gun and was grabbing her, sources said.

Witnesses directed the responding police — two officers and a sergeant — to an open fourth-floor apartment, according to NYPD's chief spokesman, James O'Neill.

"The officers repeatedly ordered the male to come to the front door of the apartment," O'Neill said.

Hampton, who records show was once tied to the Bloods street gang, instead retreated to the bedroom with the woman, police said.

"The officers then heard a female screaming from the bedroom, 'Help me! Help me! He's going to kill me!'" O'Neill said.

"The officers opened the door to the bedroom, observed the male holding a female with a gun to her head," O'Neill added.

Hampton then pointed the gun at the police, prompting the woman to pull herself away from him, police said.

"The male was still pointing the gun at the officers and a sergeant and one officer fired multiple rounds at the male," O'Neill said.

Hampton was pronounced dead at St. Barnabas Hospital, police said.

This was not his first run-in with police, he had been arrested five times before and was on parole after being convicted of robbing a cab with a BB gun on February 12, 2012, according to records. 

Hampton told prosecutors he acted out of peer pressure back then. 

“I just wanted acceptance (...) I have my parents but my father is always at work so I was looking for a crowd to fit in. I just have sisters.” he told his parole panel at a November hearing last year. 

“The person that committed the crimes, I don’t think of myself as the same person, or I won't commit the same actions that I did,” he said, adding he looked forward to getting a job once he would be released form jail.

Hampton, who used to attend Wild Cats School and worked part time in construction before being sent to jail, was also sent two months in solitary confinement after getting into a fight with another inmate on Rikers Island, records show.

Sources said that police had never been called before to a domestic disturbance between the two.

The girl was treated for a bullet wound to the shoulder at St. Barnabas, where she was listed in stable condition, police said. It was not clear who struck the girl with gunfire.

The officers were also treated for tinnitus at an area hospital, police said.