NEW YORK – Police chased a man wielding a meat cleaver through midtown Manhattan Thursday, then shot him after he attacked one of the officers trying to subdue him, authorities said.
The gunshots rang out about a block from Macy’s department store and Madison Square Garden just as rush hour was getting underway.
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The man with the knife was shot at least twice and was hospitalized in critical condition, police said. An off-duty police detective was being treated at the hospital for a slash wound to the face.
The confrontation began when officers encountered the man trying to remove an immobilizing boot from a parked vehicle, police department spokesman Peter Donald said.
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A bystander, Jonathan Schneier, said when he left work to get coffee he saw a balding man holding a cleaver, surrounded by a small group of officers yelling at him to drop the knife. One officer had a Taser out. Others had handguns.
“I give credit to the police officers. They gave him many opportunities,” Schneier said. He said the man with the knife “did not look very stable.”
The man turned and ran, Schneier said.
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Officers chased the man down the street. An off-duty police detective tried to tackle the man, who struck the officer in the head with the knife, Donald said. That’s when officers opened fire, he said.
Corey Melton, a photographer, was checking his phone on the street corner when he heard “a series of gunshots go off.”
Photos he took show a grey, four-door sedan with bullet holes in the windshield and numerous police cars with their emergency lights on. His photos also show a man sitting on the ground handcuffed behind the car.
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