NYC stadiums are going commando
Specially trained NYPD officers armed with high-powered rifles will soon be assigned to every event at the city’s major stadiums and arenas to combat potential terror, The Post has learned.
In the coming weeks, Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center will each be patrolled by more than a dozen officers from their local station houses — Midtown South and the 78th Precinct — during all games, concerts and other events, law-enforcement sources said.
The newly assigned officers recently underwent a two-week training course, then a second instruc- tional session, to familiarize themselves with the semiautomatic Colt M4 Commando rifles that they will carry while on duty.
NYPD patrol officers are normally assigned 9mm handguns.
Members of the stadium anti-terror force also will wear special helmets, vests, gun slings, headsets and tactical uniforms.
Police Commissioner James O’Neill ordered the increased security after the May 22 suicide terror bombing that killed 22 people at England’s Manchester Arena at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, sources said.
Details of the NYPD move come less than two weeks after an ISIS-inspired terrorist rammed a truck into pedestrians and cyclists on a bike path in downtown Manhattan, killing eight and injuring 11.
Previously, cops from the NYPD’s elite Emergency Service Unit, Strategic Response Group and Critical Response Command — who are all armed with M4 rifles — worked events at the stadiums on an onand-off basis.
Next summer, Yankee Stadium, Citi Field and Brooklyn’s MCU Park will get the same treatment as MSG and the Barclays Center.
The precautionary measure allows for cops to get to know the venue inside and out and be better prepared for a possible attack.
“If a report comes over that there is a shooter in a certain section, the officers will know exactly where the shooter is, instead of a visiting officer who isn’t familiar with the inside of the building,” a law-enforcement source said.
A Bronx officer added, “These cops will cut the response time because they will be permanently assigned to the venue and they know the layout of the building.”