NYPD officers fatally shot a 54-year-old man who advanced on them with a butcher knife he had earlier used to attack his elderly father in their apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, cops said on Sunday.
The incident happened around 4 p.m. inside an apartment building on Ludlow St. near Rivington St., according to the NYPD.
Police officers responding to multiple 911 calls about an attack in progress encountered Wei Chan, who was wielding a butcher knife, on the staircase and ordered him multiple times to “show his hands,” and opened fire when he advanced toward them still holding the knife, striking him at least one time, cops said.
Medics rushed Chan to Bellevue Hospital, where he died, Assistant Chief Melissa Eger said at a press briefing.
“When officers arrived and entered the building, they saw a trail of blood leading up the staircase,” Eger said. “As they continued up the stairs, they encountered a male descending the stairs toward the officers with a large butcher knife.
Julian Roberts-Grmela / New York Daily News
A photo of a butcher knife recovered at the scene of an officer-involved shooting on Ludlow St. is displayed at a NYPD press conference on Sunday. (Julian Roberts-Grmela / New York Daily News)
“Officers repeated multiple commands for the male to show his hands in an effort for him to drop the weapon,” Eger said. “As officers issued repeated commands, the male continued to advance toward the officers, armed with the large butcher knife. Officers responded and discharged their firearms, striking the subject.”
The incident was captured on body-worn cameras. Cops recovered the butcher knife at the scene, Eger said.
Chan does not have a criminal history but does have a “documented mental health history with the department,” Eger said.
Chan’s father, 75-year-old Cheung Chan, was treated at Bellevue Hospital for a cut to his head from where his son had struck him, according to Eger. He is expected to survive.
Multiple police officers were taken to an area hospital “for evaluation,” Eger said.
“I saw a cop car kind of rush the scene. They ran upstairs,” said a Bronx man who was waiting to be seated at a nearby restaurant. He declined to give his name.
“I would say, like, a minute or two later, you heard about six gunshots,” coming from inside the building, the man said.
More police immediately arrived at the scene. Then, “maybe like 20, 25 minutes later, they brought one body down. He was alive, though,” the witness said.
“He had an oxygen mask and they (were) performing CPR on him. You could tell he was in bad shape,” he said. Blood was “all over his body. Like it was dripping down.”
Courtesy Fabio Gutierrez
Medics remove a man from a Ludlow St. apartment building after a police involved shooting on Sunday. (Courtesy Fabio Gutierrez)
Amber Gunther, 28, had just sat down for a drink at Pretty Rickies when the chaos unfolded. “We just sat down and there (were) no police cars or anything, and then as we just ordered our first drink, a couple police cars and ambulance came. So that’s when we were like, well, something is going on,” Gunther said. Shortly afterward she saw a man being removed from the building on a stretcher, with medics performing CPR.
“Then just after that happened, an elderly Chinese gentleman got brought out this way. He was walking absolutely fine, but he was covered in blood and with obvious injuries to his head,” Gunther said. “He was all bandaged up, and then they took him directly into a car just round the corner.”
The NYPD Force Investigation Division is examining the incident.