Police reportedly shot and killed a man who allegedly attacked and seriously injured an officer with a chair during a dispute in Brooklyn on Friday night — the fifth police-involved shooting in New York City in 10 days.
The latest episode involved a street vendor who interfered in the lawful arrest of an individual caught urinating in a nail salon, police officials said at a Friday press conference. The vendor struck a 24-year veteran of the NYPD in the head with a metal chair, causing injuries so severe that doctors at Brookdale University Hospital had to place him in a medically-induced coma.
The vendor was shot six times by police and pronounced dead at the scene.
“We’re standing here at the hospital because one of our officers was injured while keeping New Yorkers safe, this time because a violent man interfered with a lawful arrest,” Chief Rodney Harrison said during the conference at Brookdale Hospital. “This incident underscores the dangers our officers face every single day.”
Based on preliminary investigation, police determined that the trouble began at about 5:40 p.m. on Oct. 25 inside the Gold Mine Nail Salon at 447 Mother Gaston Blvd., near Sutter Ave.
Harrison said that a male individual walked into the salon and asked to use the restroom, then began urinating inside. Reports indicated the individual was a panhandler, but police could not immediately confirm that information.
Salon workers then flagged down a marked 73rd Precinct police vehicle and urged the two officers inside to have the individual removed from the store. Harrison said the two uniformed officers entered the store and questioned the man, then learned that he had an outstanding arrest warrant for a previous criminal mischief incident.
The individual began physically resisting the officers as they attempted to place him into custody, according to Harrison. That’s when the street vendor walked into the salon and began interfering.
“The individual standing outside the store entered and engaged in a violent struggle with the uniformed officers. One of the officers deployed a Taser, but it was ineffective in stopping the threat,” Harrison said. “The male continued his violent struggle with the officers by raising up a metal chair and striking one of the officers in the head. This officer discharged his firearm six times at the suspect.”
Police at the scene of a shooting that occurred in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn on Oct. 25. (Photo by Mark Hallum)
The t-shirt vendor was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, Harrison reported. The injured officer was rushed to Brookdale Hospital, where doctors worked to save his life. He’s now listed in critical but stable condition.
The officer’s partner was treated at Kings County Medical Center for tinnitus, Harrison said.
At the scene, NYPD detectives are pulling footage from nearby security cameras as part of the ongoing investigation.
One witness at the scene who claimed to know the vendor described him as a “church-going man.” Another neighborhood resident said the man he was known in the community as “2.5; because he’d slap the s#!t out of you in 2.5 seconds.”
The individual who originally resisted arrest was later taken into custody, Harrison noted.
The city has been rocked by four previous police-involved shootings over the past two weeks. Early Wednesday morning, cops shot a man in Harlem who had apparently shot a responding officer during a struggle. The officer survived because the suspect’s shot hit his bulletproof vest.
This was fresh on the minds of police officials at Friday’s press conference in condemning the suspect whose interference triggered the latest shooting.
“We don’t tolerate violence in this city just day to day, and we certainly can’t tolerate it when the officer is the subject of indiscriminate violence, as it was this evening,” First Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Tucker said. “An attack on a uniformed officer doing his duty is an attack on society at large, and we can’t have that.”
Patrolman’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch said that the injured officer “was set upon for no reason,” and that “there is never an acceptable reason to attack a New York City police officer.”
“We go out to help your families, but our families pay for it when someone sets upon a New York City police officer,” Lynch added. “Never acceptable. It has to stop.”
With reporting from Ben Verde and Robert Pozarycki.
