Death of John Lennon - Murder

Murder

The Dakota's doorman, ex-CIA Agent Jose Sanjenis Perdomo, and a nearby cab driver saw Chapman standing in the shadows by the archway. Ono walked ahead of Lennon and into the reception area. As Lennon passed by, he looked at Chapman briefly and continued on his way. Within seconds, Chapman took aim directly at the center of Lennon's back and fired five hollow-point bullets at him from a Charter Arms .38 Special revolver in rapid succession. Based on statements made that night by NYPD Chief of Detectives, James Sullivan, numerous radio, television, and newspaper reports claimed at the time that, before firing, Chapman called out "Mr. Lennon" and dropped into a "combat stance". Later court hearings and witness interviews did not include either "Mr. Lennon" or the "combat stance" description. Chapman has said he does not remember calling out Lennon's name before he fired, but he confirmed taking a "combat stance" in a 1992 interview with Barbara Walters. The first bullet missed, passing over Lennon's head and hitting a window of the Dakota building. Two of the next bullets struck Lennon in the left side of his back, and two more penetrated his left shoulder. Lennon, bleeding profusely from external wounds and also from his mouth, staggered up five steps to the security/reception area, saying, "I'm shot, I'm shot". He then fell to the floor, scattering cassettes that he had been carrying. The concierge, Jay Hastings, first started to make a tourniquet, but upon ripping open Lennon's blood-stained shirt and realizing the severity of his multiple injuries, he covered Lennon's chest with his uniform jacket, removed his blood-covered glasses, and summoned the police.

Outside, doorman Perdomo shook the gun out of Chapman's hand then kicked it across the sidewalk. Chapman then removed his coat and hat in preparation for the arrival of police—to show he was not carrying any concealed weapons—and sat down on the sidewalk. Doorman Perdomo shouted at Chapman, "Do you know what you've done?" to which Chapman calmly replied, "Yes, I just shot John Lennon." The first policemen to arrive were Steve Spiro and Peter Cullen, who were at 72nd Street and Broadway when they heard a report of shots fired at the Dakota. The officers arrived around two minutes later and found Chapman sitting "very calmly" on the sidewalk. They reported that Chapman had dropped the revolver to the ground and was holding a paperback book, J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.

The second team, officers Bill Gamble and James Moran, arrived a few minutes later. They immediately carried Lennon into their squad car and rushed him to Roosevelt Hospital. Officer Moran said they placed Lennon on the back seat. Reportedly, Moran asked, "Are you John Lennon?" to which Lennon nodded and replied "Yes." There are conflicting accounts of this, however. According to another account, Lennon nodded slightly and tried to speak, but could only manage to make a gurgling sound, and lost consciousness shortly thereafter.

Dr. Stephan Lynn received Lennon in the emergency room at Roosevelt Hospital. When Lennon arrived, he had no pulse and was not breathing. Dr. Lynn and two other doctors worked for nearly 20 minutes, opening Lennon's chest and attempting manual heart massage to restore circulation, but the damage to the blood vessels around the heart was too great. Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival in the emergency room at the Roosevelt Hospital at 11:15 pm by Dr. Lynn, but the time of 11:07 pm has also been reported. The cause of death was reported as hypovolemic shock; caused by the loss of more than 80% of blood volume.

The surgeon also noted—as did other witnesses—that at the moment Lennon was pronounced dead a Beatles song ("All My Loving") came over the hospital's sound system.

As Lennon was shot four times with hollow-point bullets (which expand upon entering the target and severely disrupt more tissue as they travel through the target), Lennon's affected organs were virtually destroyed upon impact. Lynn stated: "If was shot in the middle of the operating room with a team of surgeons ready to work on him, he wouldn't have survived his injuries". When told by Dr. Lynn of her husband's death, Ono started sobbing and said, "Oh no, no, no, no... tell me it's not true." Dr. Lynn remembers that Ono laid down and began hitting her head against the floor, but calmed down when a nurse gave Lennon's wedding ring to her. She was led away from Roosevelt Hospital by Geffen Records' president, David Geffen, in a state of shock.