Brooklyn hospital shooting: Patient fatally shot by NYPD in Park Slope was armed with piece of toilet
Officials said Friday that the 62-year-old Brooklyn man fatally shot by police at New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital had no criminal record.
He was armed with a piece of a toilet seat he had broken off and was using it to repeatedly cut himself. He also tried to cut another patient and a security guard, officials said.
Police responded to multiple calls around 5:30 p.m. of a violent man armed with a sharp weapon on the eighth floor.
When officers arrived, they say the man had locked himself in a hospital room with an elderly patient and hospital security employee. Officers said they saw blood on the walls and floor of the room.
Staff told officers the suspect cut himself and threatened to harm others and threatened to kill staff members, authorities said.
On body-worn camera reviewed by department officials, the officers spent an extended amount of time attempting to de-escalate the situation and get the man to put down the makeshift weapon.
Officers attempted to intervene and when the suspect moved toward officers while holding the weapon, police deployed a taser, officials said.
The taser was not effective and the man continued to try and close the door. Police spent several more minutes attempting to force the door open and continued giving verbal commands.
The suspect advanced toward officers with the weapon again and officers used additional tasers, which did not work, to stop him, authorities said.
They opened fire when they felt they had no other choice, the official said. The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene and police recovered the weapon inside of the hospital room.
The hospital security staff member is being evaluated following the incident. The other patient who was barricaded in the room, a man in his 70s, was not hurt.
Police officials said the man checked himself into the hospital the day before but would not elaborate, citing patient privacy.
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