Two NYPD officers were shot in the hand, and another was stabbed in the neck in Flatbush during a bloody confrontation with a suspect on Wednesday night, according to authorities.
Paramedics rushed all three officers to Kings County Hospital in stable condition with non-life threatening injuries, according to a Police Department spokeswoman.
The suspect was also shot multiple times during the encounter, and was also taken to Kings County Hospital in critical condition, authorities said.
Police Commissioner Demort Shea, who appeared at a 2:30 am press conference outside the hospital along with Mayor Bill de Blasio and PBA President Patrick Lynch, claimed that the suspect approached a pair of officers within the 70th Precinct near Church and Flatbush avenues and stabbed one of them in the neck just before midnight in a “cowardly, unprovoked attack on a police officer.”
Other officers, who were patrolling nearby, then responded to the “chaotic” scene and allegedly saw the suspect holding a firearm — which Shea speculated belonged to an officer — before engaging in a firefight, during which two officers sustained gunshot wounds.
At the early morning press briefing, Shea declined to go into further detail about what events led up to the initial confrontation, and also did not say how the ensuing conflict played out. Authorities later counted 22 shell casings at the scene of the incident.
“We have multiple body cameras that are being reviewed. They describe an extremely chaotic, rapid situation that is dark and unclear,” he said. “We feel that we will have a much better, as the hours progress, understanding of what transpired.”
Social media posts from the scene show a chaotic atmosphere, as helicopters hover above and dozens of police vehicles block off the surrounding streets.
Not sure why but there is now a massive cop presence next to my building. pic.twitter.com/0NGlE1izu4
— Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech (@AODNewz) June 4, 2020
It is unclear whether the initial incident was related to recent protests against police brutality, which began in New York City last week in response to the death of 46-year-old George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.
Hundreds of demonstrators had been marching through the streets in Downtown Brooklyn on Wednesday night, following several days of similar nationwide demonstrations.
Those protests became violent as NYPD officers took a more heavy-handed approach to quashing the demonstrations — and enforcing an 8 pm curfew, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo first instated on Monday.
