‘Erratic’ man, 61, wielding 14-inch knife fatally shot after lunging at cops in NYC: police
An “erratic” knife-wielding man was shot dead by police in Queens after he lunged at officers while clutching a 14-inch blade, according to sources.
Police arrived at 30th Avenue and 33rd Street in Astoria around 6:20 a.m. after receiving three 911 calls about a man armed with a knife at 30th Avenue and 33rd Street in Astoria, according to NYPD Chief of Department John Chell.
“Some of the callers thought he was going to stab someone,” Chell said.
Video leading up to the deadly confrontation obtained by The Post shows the apparently deranged man casually strolling across the busy street in the path of oncoming traffic, swinging the massive blade as cops close in on him from behind, according to cops and video from the scene.
Uniformed officers repeatedly demanded the 61-year-old man drop what appeared to be a kitchen knife, according to the police official.
The video shows four cops closing in at him – at least three with outstretched weapons.
“They deployed their tasers, multiple tasers that were ineffective,” Chell said. “At this point the officers, during a 56-second dialogue, were asking the person in mental stress to drop the knife. He would not.
“At this point, the man advanced himself on the officers” in the middle of the street, he said.
Officers were then “forced to defend themselves” and fire “numerous times” on the blade-wielding man, Chell said.
Cops treated the man on scene before he was taken to the Elmhurst Hospital Center, where he succumbed to his injuries.
“The NYPD tries at all times to de-escalate and slow down these situations,” Chell said. “Sometimes, when you’re dealing with an armed person, you can see here, a 14-inch knife, we are forced, unfortunately, to defend ourselves.
The suspect was taken to Elmhurst General Hospital, where he died. Officers were also hospitalized with ringing in their ears.
The knife, seen on the street with a white handle, was recovered from the scene.
The entire ordeal was captured both on the officers’ body-worn cameras and surveillance footage from a local business, Chell said.
The NYPD will investigate why the tasers “did not work the way we wanted them to,” Chell said.
The armed man, who was not immediately identified by police, had two documented mental health-related incidents with the NYPD, according to Chell.
