A bloodied, blade-wielding patient at Brooklyn Methodist Hospital was shot and killed by cops Thursday night after he barricaded himself in a room with an elderly patient and a staffer — sending the Park Slope medical center into lockdown, according to cops.
Police rushed to the hospital after receiving multiple 911 calls just before 5:30 p.m. about a man who barricaded himself inside an eighth-floor hospital room with an elderly patient and a member of the hospital security staff, Charles Minch, Assistant Chief and Commanding Officer of patrol borough Brooklyn South, said at a press conference late Thursday.
The madman was wielding a sharp, broken piece of a toilet seat and was using it to cut himself and had tried to cut other people, leaving the whole room covered in blood, according to sources and cops.
The unhinged man had a sharp object and used it to cut himself. Christopher Sadowski
He had also threatened to kill the hospital security staffer, police said.
“When they got to the room, they saw blood all over the walls, floor, and splattered across the exterior of the door,” Minch told reporters.
The crazed patient then came to the door frame and displayed the bloody, self-fastened weapon to officers.
The cops repeatedly demanded he drop the weapon in a tense back-and-forth lasting over three minutes, Minch said.
The man refused to drop the ad hoc blade and “forcefully tried to close the door to the room multiple times.”
The shooting occurred at Brooklyn Methodist Hospital Christopher Sadowski
“Officers tried to open the door to the room multiple times because there were two additional people that the subject had trapped in the room,” Minch said.
The blood-drenched patient then stepped toward the cops with the weapon in his hands. Officers responded by simultaneously deploying a taser and discharging a firearm, the assistant chief said.
The taser did not stop the rampaging man, and he closed the door once again with the two individuals inside.
Two officers tased the man before two more officers fired shots at him. Christopher Sadowski
Officers tried to kick the door open and repeatedly demanded he drop his weapon as he continued to advance toward them with the broken toilet piece in his hand.
Cops deployed tasers once again, but they were not effective, prompting officers to discharge their guns, striking him, Minch said.
The man, who has not yet been identified, was later pronounced dead, cops said.
The man, whose identity has yet to be released, died at the same hospital.
He had been admitted to Methodist Hospital the day before, Minch said. It is not immediately clear why he was hospitalized.
The condition of the elderly patient who was trapped inside the room with the unhinged man is not immediately clear. A police spokesperson said the hospital security staff member is being evaluated.
“This entire incident was depicted on body-worn camera footage. This situation could have turned out very differently. The individual threatened to kill hospital staff, barricaded himself inside of a room with an elderly patient and a member of hospital security with a weapon,” Minch said.
The individual was admitted to the hospital the day prior to the fatal incident. Christopher Sadowski
“Every day, our officers put on their uniforms. They never know what kind of dangerous situation they are going to encounter. That is the risk that every member of the NYPD faces every single day to keep this city safe,” he continued.
Helicopters and emergency vehicles were spotted swarming the hospital in Park Slope in the aftermath of the shooting.
A 30-year-old registered nurse at the ICU in Methodist Hospital recalled feeling fearful after hearing about a shooting on the eighth floor and not knowing exactly what had happened.
Officials haven’t said why the man was hospitalized.
“People started talking about a shooting on the 8th floor. We didn’t know if it was an active shooter or what the situation was until we learned that it was an NYPD officer that shot the suspect or the patient, or whoever it was that got shot,” the nurse, who wished not to be identified, recalled.
“So it was a little scary at first, you know, because we were like, ‘Oh, is it an active shooter?’ Like is it a visitor who came in that just started shooting at everything? We didn’t know, so we were just kind of waiting to hear more information,” the nurse continued.
“It didn’t stop us from continuing to provide care to the patients. But it was scary until the security cleared it, eventually.”
A husband of an ICU nurse at the hospital said there was cause for concern as security guards at Methodist Hospital weren’t always able to respond to patient altercations.
The husband of an ICU nurse at Methodist Hospital said he has become increasingly alarmed that hospital security guards are not always able to respond to altercations with patients, forcing staff to call the NYPD.
“My wife is an IC[U] nurse, it’s terrifying. There’s no security in there. The guards are not allowed to touch a patient, even if the patient is beating a nurse,” the man named Nasir said.
“It’s crazy. The whole system is all broken. The hospital systems are broken. They just care about their pockets and their, the stockholders,” he continued.
Hospital staff had to call the NYPD on numerous occasions to handle patient confrontations.
The emergency room was placed on lockdown following the incident, and family members of patients have been told to leave, one woman, whose son is in the emergency room at Methodist, told The Post.
NewYork-Presbyterian, the active parent of Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.