A sergeant’s bullet brought an end to an evening of violence at a Manhattan apartment on Wednesday, killing the suspect who allegedly shot a female resident to death and then violently stabbed a male victim.
Officials said the tragedy occurred at 6:45 p.m. on May 20, when officers from the 26th Precinct responded to a reported shooting inside an apartment building on St. Nicholas Avenue near West 127th Street in the Manhattanville neighborhood.
Citing preliminary information, Chief of Patrol Fausto Pichardo told members of the media that plain-clothed and uniformed officers went up to a fifth-floor apartment where the reported shooting occurred.
Pichardo said the unnamed sergeant observed an open apartment door and walked in to find an unconscious woman bleeding heavily. The sergeant then spotted the suspect, a 44-year-old man, armed with a knife and “engaged in a violent struggle” with a 39-year-old man.
“The sergeant identified himself as an NYPD officer and gave commands to” the 44-year-old male suspect, the chief reported. “The subject was given numerous verbal commands to show the officer his hands.”
But the perpetrator ignored the sergeant, Pichardo noted, leading the sergeant to open fire.
“The suspect, armed with a kitchen knife, attempted to stab that male. The sergeant then discharged his service weapon, striking the suspect in the torso,” the chief said.
Police immediately contacted EMS for help and administered aid to both the injured suspect and the unconscious woman. Responding paramedics pronounced them both dead at the scene; police have withheld their identities, pending family notification.
EMS rushed the 39-year-old man, who suffered stab wounds, to Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital in stable condition, law enforcement sources reported.
Cops also encountered an uninjured, 41-year-old woman inside the apartment at the time of the incident.
Pichardo declined to provide information as to a possible motive, or whether the suspect was related to the female victim.
During their investigation, police recovered from the residence a 9mm semi-automatic Glock handgun and a 12-inch kitchen knife. Both items are being examined further by NYPD crime scene investigators.
The chief reported that the investigation remains ongoing.
This story was updated on May 20 at 10:20 p.m.
