A 32-year-old man was shot and wounded by an NYPD officer when he “swiftly approached” police with a butcher knife in his Bronx apartment building after he had called 911 Sunday evening, cops said.
The suspect was shot once in the torso in a building stairwell after cops repeatedly demanded he drop the knife in the Mott Haven neighborhood around 5:45 p.m., Deputy Chief Rohan Griffith said during a press conference.
Police first reached the second floor of the building after they received a report about the attempted theft of an air conditioner unit – with the 911 call apparently coming from the 32-year-old, said Griffith, who is the commanding officer of the NYPD’s Force Investigation Division.
When police did not see anyone at the second-floor apartment, they started going back downstairs where they met the man who was allegedly holding the kitchen knife.
Despite commands to “wait” and “drop the knife,” the man “continued to approach the officers swiftly with the knife in his right hand,” Griffith said.
Although the man spoke Spanish, an officer also put her hand up to motion to him to stop walking toward authorities before pulling the trigger, according to police.
He was given aid by police and taken to Lincoln Hospital where he is in stable condition.
The NYPD also released a photo of the knife recovered at the scene.
Griffith said after the man called about his AC unit, he went outside to confront another man in the building’s courtyard.
Soon after he went back inside where the encounter with police took place.
“This situation was extremely fast-moving and lasted only a few seconds in an extremely tight stairwell,” Griffith said of the shooting.
Investigators have not identified the male in the courtyard who came face to face with the shot man.
It’s also unclear if the man only called police to draw them to the building as the probe is ongoing, Griffith said.
The Bronx shooting comes two days after cops shot a 50-year-old man who allegedly pointed a gun at an NYPD sergeant in Brooklyn during a police chase.
That suspect was taken to a local hospital in critical condition.
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