(NEW YORK) — New York City police officers opened fire early Sunday and killed a man alleged to have barged though the back door of a police precinct station house and attacked an officer with a butcher knife when she tried to fight him off, authorities said.
The deadly shooting occurred on a street in the Brownsville section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn near the 73rd Precinct station house, where the suspect slashed an officer with a knife that authorities said had a 14-inch blade, according to police.
On Monday, the New York Police Department (NYPD) identified the deceased suspect as 35-year-old Justin Coleman of Brooklyn.
“Every day our officers put on their uniforms, they encounter dangerous situations out in the street, but it’s another kind of danger when someone comes directly into a precinct armed with a knife and attacks our officers,” Chief of Patrol Phillip Rivera of the New York York Police Department (NYPD) said at a news conference on Sunday.
A motive for the station house attack remains under investigation.
The attack occurred at around 5:24 a.m. when the suspect was captured on surveillance video attempting to enter the locked front door of the station house, Rivera said on Sunday. The suspect then allegedly walked to the rear of the station house and entered through a door that Rivera said is clearly marked for use by authorized NYPD personnel only.
“He entered the rear of the precinct and was immediately confronted by a police officer who was assigned to station-house security,” Rivera said.
When the officer directed the suspect to the front of the station house for assistance, he allegedly pulled out the butcher knife and attacked her but the officer was able to fight him off, Rivera said. The suspect slashed the officer in the forehead before fleeing, the NYPD said in a statement on Monday.
Rivera said the suspect ran out of the back door allegedly still wielding the knife. Several officers followed the suspect down the street, ordering him repeatedly to drop the weapon, according to Rivera.
Officers initially deployed a stun gun on the suspect but it had no effect, Rivera said during Sunday’s news conference.
At one point, the suspect “lunged at an officer with the knife extended toward that officer,” prompting officers to open fire, hitting the suspect multiple times, Rivera said Sunday.
On Monday, the NYPD said that two officers shot the man.
The suspect was taken to Brookdale Hospital Medical Center in Brooklyn where he was pronounced dead, according to Rivera on Sunday.
The officer who was attacked at the station house was taken to a hospital, treated for what Rivera described as superficial injuries, and released.
“Thank god our sister is on the road to recovery, but this was a clear targeted attack on New York City police officers,” Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association union, said in a statement. “This individual had no fear when he walked into a police precinct and attacked a uniformed cop – there is no telling what he might have done to innocent New Yorkers out on the street. Despite being injured, our sister pursued this individual along with her fellow police officers, and they stopped the threat before anyone else was hurt.”
“This is another example of the extraordinary work our police officers are doing in an incredibly dangerous environment,” Hendry’s statement said.
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