Police in the Bronx shot and critically wounded a 34-year-old man who was allegedly holding a knife to his mother’s throat and threatening to kill her on Thursday night, authorities said.
The officer-involved shooting incident unfolded around 11:20 p.m. on May 1 at an apartment inside Hazel Towers near Mulford Ave. and Libby Place in the Pelham Bay section of the borough.
During a press briefing early Friday morning, NYPD Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera said officers responded to a 911 call of a male armed with a knife attempting to harm himself inside an apartment. “A security guard who works for the building placed the call and heard screaming coming from the apartment,” Rivera said.
Two responding officers from the 45th Precinct were “confronted with the dangerous and difficult situation and ultimately saved a woman’s life,” he said.
A family member let the two officers into the apartment where they reportedly found the man in the rear of the residence, holding his “distraught” 61-year-old mother in a chokehold with a large kitchen knife pressed to her neck, police said.
According to Rivera, the officers spent over two and a half minutes attempting to de-escalate the situation before one officer fired one round at the 34-year-old.
“As our officers were attempting this, the male made numerous threats to kill his mother, all while he was still holding her with his arm around her neck and holding the knife,” Rivera said. “Numerous times during this interaction, the male moved the knife towards his mother’s neck.”
“One officer discharged one round, striking the male and freeing the woman,” Rivera continued, adding the officers rendered aid to the wounded man before EMS took him to Jacobi Medical Center.
As of Friday morning, the man remained in critical condition. An NYPD spokesperson did not disclose where he had been shot.
The 61-year-old was not physically harmed, police said.
Both officers were taken to an area hospital for evaluation. The incident was captured on body-worn cameras and remains under investigation by the NYPD’s Force Investigation Division. Rivera emphasized that the information provided was “preliminary and subject to change.”
