Police shot and killed a man in Brooklyn on Saturday after he attacked them with an officer’s baton, the NYPD said.
Two officers from the NYPD’s Housing Bureau responded to a call of a suspicious man at 362 Sutter Ave. in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn at approximately 1:10 p.m., according to the department. They encountered a man in the ninth-floor hallway and asked him for identification, NYPD Chief of Housing James Secreto said.
“Next thing you know, there’s a scuffle encountered and the officers are in a scuffle with this man,” Secreto said during a news briefing in Brownsville.
One of the officers removed a metal baton — but a moment later the man got “a hold of the metal baton,” Secreto said, and began striking the officers in the head.
“Both officers at this point fired at the suspect,” Secreto said. “He was struck several times and subsequently pronounced dead at the scene.”
The man was later identified as Erickson Brito, 21, of nearby Mother Gaston Boulevard.
Police did not not name the injured officers. The male officer sustained a two-inch gash to his head, Secreto said, and the female officer has contusions. Both were treated at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, he said.
The female officer was released Saturday night and the male officer remained hospitalized in stable condition, police officials said Sunday morning.
With Nicholas Spangler
