'Seven Shots' author to speak at SUNY Orange

MIDDLETOWN — Jennifer C. Hunt spent years studying police culture through fieldwork among police in New York City and Philadelphia. In fact, her publications include police department training materials. On Monday, March 31, at 7 p.m., Hunt will speak about her book, "Seven Shots: An NYPD Raid on a Terrorist Cell and its Aftermath," when she comes to Orange County Community College’s Gilman Center for International Education located in the Library. The presentation is of great interest to those involved in criminal justice as well as individuals who like a good read since Hunt gives an intimate look at the experience of emergency service cops. The program is free and open to the public.

"Seven Shots" tells the dramatic story of the July 31, 1997 raid of a terrorist cell in Brooklyn by a six-man NYPD Emergency Service team that narrowly prevented a suicide bombing of the New York City subway. Hunt draws on her personal knowledge of the NYPD and a network of police contacts extending from cop to four-star chief, to trace the experience of three officers on the emergency service entry team and the two bomb squad detectives who dismantled the live device. She follows their lives for five years, from that near-fatal day in 1997, through their encounters inside the brutal world of departmental politics, and on to 9/11.

Hunt's book has been described as “a fast-paced narrative” that is “fine-grained with a street-level view.” From her perspective as a sociologist and her extensive research, she has come to understand cops as she “looks beneath the surface of the NYPD.” As an author, she moves the book at “the pace of a thriller,” as she reveals the thoughts and emotions of the cops involved and the real-world dynamics within the New York City Police Department (NYPD).

Hunt has a PhD in sociology and is a professor of Justice Studies at Montclair State University. A booksigning will take place after the lecture and discussion.

The Gilman Center and Library are on the Middletown campus at the corner of South St. and East Conkling Ave. Questions may be directed to Cultural Affairs at 845-341-4891 and cultural@sunyorange.edu, or go to the Web site, www.sunyorange.edu/culturalaffairs.