Tragedy unfolded Thursday evening in the halls of NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital when former NYPD officer Michael Lynch, 62, was shot and killed by police after he had barricaded himself in a room. According to ABC7NY, Lynch, who had resigned from the police department in the 1990s, was armed with a broken piece of a toilet seat and had locked himself in with an elderly patient and a hospital security staff member.
Responding to multiple calls around 5:30 p.m. about a violent man with a sharp weapon, police arrived to find a highly distressing scene. In a room splattered with blood on the eighth floor, hospital staff and his family describe Michael Lynch who was reportedly self-harming and threatening others. Details given by an ABC7NY report specify that body-worn camera footage showed officers spending "an extended amount of time" trying to de-escalate the situation and get Lynch to surrender his makeshift weapon.
Efforts to resolve the crisis without violence were to no avail; police say multiple tasers deployed against Lynch proved ineffective. According to statements in the ABC7NY, when Lynch advanced toward the officers with the weapon again, they felt they had "no other choice" but to open fire. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and the incident left an air of shock throughout the Brooklyn community.
Meanwhile, the hospital is maintaining a level of privacy regarding the incident, with a spokesperson declining to answer questions, stating patient privacy. Touched by shock, Lynch's family told the Gothamist they were "struggling to process the news," adding that his behavior that led to the fatal shooting was "out of character" for him. The other patient, a man in his 70s and the security staff member present during the ordeal were both unharmed, though the hospital employee is being evaluated following the incident, Gothamist reported.
