A crazed man was shot by police after wielding a 13-inch kitchen knife outside a grocery store, the New York Police Department said.
“Once again, we are reminded of the dangers that our officers confront every time they put on their uniform. And this morning was no different,” Inspector Andrew Natiw, the executive officer of the Patrol Bureau of Manhattan North, said in a Monday morning news conference.
According to the NYPD, on Monday at 1:15 a.m., a 53-year-old got into a verbal fight with another person inside the City Fresh Market on East 120th Street and Third Avenue.
Multiple employees had to physically remove him from the store after he became “irate and disorderly,” the NYPD said. The man returned to the store a short time later with a large kitchen knife in his hand, banging on the window, according to police.
WATCH: Knife-wielding man seen menacing grocery store employees
Surveillance video captured the man wielding a 13-inch knife, yelling, pressing against the store’s glass, police said.
Employees locked the door and called 911 just after 1:30 a.m.
When officers arrived, they told the man to drop the knife multiple times, but he “quickly advanced toward the officers with the knife extended out.”
Authorities said that one of the officers shot the suspect and immediately requested EMS and rendered aid to the 53-year-old suspect.
The suspect, they said, was removed to Harlem Hospital where he went into surgery, and is in critical but stable condition.
The NYPD declined to provide a name of the suspect. Police said the man has a history of prior arrests and was known to law enforcement.
Investigators recovered approximately seven shell casings at the scene. The incident remains under investigation.
