Police officers in Queens shot and killed a man who apparently refused their commands to drop a weapon on Saturday morning, law enforcement sources said.
The incident happened at about 4:11 a.m. on April 20 near the corner of Roosevelt Avenue and 103rd Street in Corona, on the boundary of the 110th and 115th Precincts.
According to Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, two officers assigned to a patrol along Roosevelt Avenue became aware of a dispute across the way from them, and went to investigate.
The preliminary investigation found that the two officers came upon a man who, while armed with a knife, was involved in a dispute with a woman. It is not yet known if the man and woman were known to each other.
Maddrey said the officers ordered the knife-wielding man to drop the weapon, but he refused. They then deployed their Taser, sending volts of electricity into the man in an effort to subdue him.
Still, Maddrey said, the man refused to drop the knife after the Taser had been deployed. The officers then discharged their weapons.
EMS rushed the man to Elmhurst Hospital, where he died a short time later. The NYPD has not yet released his identity.
The case was presented to the NYPD Force Investigation Division, which examines all incidents in which police officers use lethal force.
Saturday’s incident was the second deadly police shooting in Queens in less than a month.
On March 27, police shot and killed Win Rozario at his home in Ozone Park during an apparent mental health episode. Rozario allegedly charged at the responding officers with a pair of scissors.
