A man is in critical condition Sunday after being shot by a police officer in the Bronx.
At around 2:20 pm, a 63-year-old woman was assaulted by a 49-year-old man, unknown to her, at East 153rd Street and Concourse Village West in the South Bronx, according to NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell. She then approached officers at the nearby Mott Haven Educational Campus to report the assault.
Chell said that five officers started chasing the man down and ultimately found him, though the man refused to obey orders to stop and subsequently brandished a firearm, displaying his handgun at a passerby. The man also refused to drop the weapon after being told to by officers, Chell said.
At the intersection of East 153rd and Grand Concourse, Chell said the man ignored pleas to drop the gun, and instead put it to his own head. At that point, he “rapidly turned, with a firearm in his right hand, towards our officers,” said the chief.
Following that, four of the officers opened fire on the man, striking him an as-yet-undetermined number of times, said Chell. The man was removed to an area hospital and remains in critical condition. The 63-year-old woman and the officers were also taken in to the hospital for treatment.
The NYPD’s investigation into the incident remains ongoing; Chell could not say Sunday whether the man appeared to be attempting a “suicide-by-cop.”
The incident comes just one day after an off-duty cop was shot in East New York, Brooklyn; the officer remains in critical condition, while the unknown assailant is the subject of a citywide manhunt.
