A man was shot to death by police after stabbing two officers, leaving them seriously injured yesterday in Long Island (NY).
The officers were stabbed after responding to a call at the Birchwood Road condominium complex in Medford, according to the Suffolk County Police Department. The incident happened around 5 pm Wednesday when a social worker checking in on two residents living there called police and said one of them was acting violently towards the other.
The man, who had not been identified as of last night, was threatening the other resident with a fire extinguisher, county police commissioner Rodney Harrison said.
The individual then produced a “Rambo-style” meat cleaver at officers responding to the scene and then stabbed two of the officers on the scene shortly thereafter. In response the officers opened fire on the man, killing him.
One of the officers suffered a deep stab wound to the clavicle and was airlifted to the hospital, Harrison said. The other officer was stabbed multiple times in the chest.
Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association President Noel DiGerlamo said in a statement that both officers were in “critical but stable condition,” adding that “God willing, they will make a full recovery from the horrific incident.”
Harrison confirmed that both are expected to survive. He detailed that the suspect was in his 50s, had a history of arrests and some possible mental health problems.
A third officer, who had not been stabbed, was treated for minor injuries. It was not clear how he was injured, he reported. NBC News.
In a similar case, $3 million in compensation was decided last week in NYC for the mother of Khiel Coppin, an 18-year-old teenager with mental illness who died in a hail of police bullets after NYPD officers mistook a hairbrush with a gun responding to his Brooklyn home in 2007.