State Attorney General Letitia James announced a probe by her office Tuesday into the Bronx police shooting over the past weekend that left a knife-wielding man dead.
The AG’s Office of Special Investigation, which examines incidents of police use of force across the Empire State, has launched the inquiry into the incident at a 7-Eleven store in Throggs Neck on Sept. 9 in what, police determined, was an apparent robbery attempt.
While investigating the reported heist, a member of the 45th Precinct shot the knife-wielding man, a Bronx resident in his 30s, after he allegedly charged at the officer with the weapon.
The fired bullet struck the man in the chest; he later died from his injuries at near by Jacobi Hospital.
The commencement of the investigation does not necessarily infer that the officers involved in the shooting did anything wrong. The OSI, according to the Attorney General’s office, “assesses every incident reported to it where a police or a peace officer, including a corrections officer, may have caused the death of a person by an act or omission.”
Police officials said the trouble began at the 7-Eleven at about 2:10 p.m. on Sept. 9, when the suspect walked into and began pacing back and forth between the front and the rear of the location.
The returning employee then headed for the 45th Precinct stationhouse and alerted police to the situation. Gurley said two uniformed officers then walked over to the 7-Eleven, where they observed the perpetrator in the rear, with his hands in his sweatshirt pockets.
“As the officers approached, one officer gave several commands to the male inside the location to take his hands out of his sweatshirt pocket,” the chief explained. “As the officer gave those commands, that male then advanced on the officer, revealing a knife in his pocket.”
Gurley explained that the perpetrator lunged at the officer with the weapon, which turned out to be a kitchen knife; police later recovered the weapon.
Police also obtained bodycam footage, as well as security video from the 7-Eleven and eyewitness accounts to develop their information about the case, Gurley noted.
