A hammer-wielding man suspected of attacking at least four people in New York City this week has been shot by police officers in midtown Manhattan.
Two cops with the New York Police Department were following a man
on Wednesday morning who matched the description of an individual
accused of being behind a wave of recent hammer assaults when the
suspect engaged the officers, prompting one of them to open fire.
The officers were trailing the man down Eighth Avenue when the
suspect “immediately pulled out a hammer,” Police
Commissioner Bill Bratton said on Wednesday, and attempted to
assault the female officer with the “claw end” of the
tool.
Incredible photo MT @NegarMortazavi: Police shot Man W/a Hammer, wanted for series of hammer attacks in NY NYTimes pic.twitter.com/y2ygQqfqWX
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) May 13, 2015
“When he turned around he pulled out the hammer and violently
started swinging the hammer at the female officer,”
Manhattan Chief of Detectives William Aubry explained to
reporters.
Four shots were fired by her colleague, Bratton said, striking
the suspect twice and leaving him in critical condition. The
incident unfolded at around 10:00am in broad daylight in the
middle of a busy midtown intersection only a few blocks from
Madison Square Garden in the presence of onlookers and NYPD
cameras.
Today's attack on the police officer leading to the shooting of the suspect by police. pic.twitter.com/HFy8iENZPF
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) May 13, 2015
“Our whole building was evacuated, it was crazy,” John
Xie, co-founder of MeowChat, the social networking app, told RT from his
Eighth Ave. office. “It happened right in the middle of the
street.”
Authorities say four people in New York City were attacked by a
hammer-wielding man on Monday during a six-hour crime spree.
Police released surveillance camera footage showing the suspect
the following day, with the NY Post identifying the man as
30-year-old David Baril, according to unnamed law enforcement
sources.
The suspect was undergoing surgery at a NYC medical center as of
Wednesday afternoon, and CBS News reported that the officers
involved did not suffer any significant injuries.
“I want to commend those two officers for their actions this
morning,” Bratton told reporters in the afternoon.
“First, in seeing the suspect, approaching him. And then
second, for the quick action on the part of the officers, but
particularly the male officer who, based on the preliminary video
that I reviewed, quite possibly saved his partner’s life by
shooting the suspect.”