An NYPD officer shot and critically wounded a man in the Bronx last night after he was seen threatening his mother with a knife, according to Gothamist. The man, 34, had his mother, 61, in a chokehold and the knife pressed to her neck when officers, called to the scene by a building security guard who heard screams, attempted to deescalate the situation inside a Pelham Bay apartment.
Trying for over two and a half minutes, officers engaged the man in conversation while urging him to release his mother and drop the weapon, Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera explained in a briefing covered by ABC7NY, as the distressed man alternated between harming himself and threatening the life of his mother it was then the police say he made numerous threats and began moving the knife towards her neck prompting an officer to fire a shot that hit him in the head.
The incident, which unfolded after police were summoned to the Mulford Avenue address around 11:20 p.m., ended with the man being taken to Jacobi Hospital, while his mother escaped physical injury, the chief said in statements obtained by both publications. The events leading up to the shooting and its immediate aftermath were recorded on the officers' body-worn cameras.
Rivera, commenting on the resolve of the responding officers, remarked that they "ultimately saved a woman's life," facing what he described as "a dangerous and difficult situation," the officers, shaken by the incident, were later assessed at a local hospital. The department's Force Investigation Division is expected to conduct a thorough review of the incident and the appropriateness of the force used, ABC7NY reported.
