NYPD fatally shoots knife-wielding man on Brooklyn Bridge cables
A man who climbed the Brooklyn Bridge cables and advanced on officers with a knife was shot dead by NYPD. Officers had spent nearly an hour attempting to talk him down.
Man shot dead on Brooklyn Bridge after advancing on officers with knife
New York City police fatally shot a man early Friday morning after he climbed on to the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge and moved toward officers with a knife, theguardian.com reports.
A 911 call came in at approximately 3.28am reporting a man walking on the beams of the bridge. Officers from the NYPD's Emergency Service Unit (ESU) responded and found the man on the cables above the East River.
"Members of ESU climbed on to those cables and attempted to establish a verbal dialogue with the male and safely remove him from the bridge," said Gerald Dowling, the commanding officer of ESU, at a news conference Friday.
The officers spent close to an hour speaking with the man, explaining they were there to help and urging him to come down safely. During the encounter, they observed he was holding a knife.
The man told officers: "I want to die, I want you to kill me. I have a bomb. You are not going to make me do something bad to the cops."
Despite issuing multiple verbal commands for him to drop the knife, officers continued their de-escalation efforts. ESU officers conducting the operation were wearing safety harnesses physically clipped into the bridge — equipment that, as Dowling noted, "drastically impacts the speed of their movement".
After roughly an hour, hundreds of feet above the East River, the man began rapidly descending the cable toward the officers positioned below him on the same line.
"The officers began to move backwards away from the male, but they were not able to move as quickly as the subject who was approaching them," Dowling said. When the man came within approximately three feet of the nearest ESU officer, he raised his arm with the knife extended toward the officer.
At that point, an ESU officer positioned on the roadbed of the bridge fired one shot, striking the man. Officers then brought him down from the cable and rendered aid. He was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
A knife and a flashlight were recovered from the scene. The NYPD shared a photograph on social media of what it said was the knife. The entire incident was captured on police body cameras, officials said. The identity of the man has not yet been released.
"This incident is being investigated by the force investigation division," Dowling said. "Members of ESU are specially trained for these types of high-risk and incredibly dangerous situations. They receive extensive instruction on de-escalation and how to engage with individuals compassionately."
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani issued a statement Friday morning confirming that ESU officers "worked to de-escalate the situation for approximately an hour and urged the man not to jump." Mamdani noted the man had been holding a knife and threatening officers, coming within close proximity to a number of them.
"One responding officer discharged his weapon and struck the man," Mamdani said. He added that as standard procedure following any discharge of an NYPD firearm, the department will conduct an internal investigation and body-worn camera footage will be released.
The shooting came several days after police shot and killed a woman in Times Square following a knife attack in which she killed a 32-year-old woman.
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)