Thursday, June 4, 2020

Updated: Police shoot knife-wielding man in deli at 10th Street and 3rd Avenue

Preliminary reports are coming in this morning about a police-involved shooting on 10th Street and Third Avenue.

Per ABC 7:

Eyewitness News is told NYPD officers responded to a report of a man with a knife at 6:40 a.m.

One man was shot and taken to Bellevue Hospital with injuries described as non-life-threatening.

Will continue to update as more information becomes available.

Updated 7:50 a.m.

The incident reportedly occurred at the Healthy Greens Gourmet deli on the northwest corner...


Details from NY1:

According to police, two officers were inside a deli when a man entered and got into a dispute with the clerk before pulling out a knife.

Police say officers ordered the man to drop the knife but he refused.

Police say officers then shot the man, hitting him once.

Updated 4:30 p.m.

A more complete picture of what happened is emerging. Here's the Post:

The officers walked into the Healthy Greens Gourmet on Third Avenue near East 10th Street around 6:40 a.m. when a 55-year-old man, holding a knife in his right hand, followed them inside, cops said.

The man then menaced the officers with the knife, prompting one of them to Tase him — but it did nothing to stop him, police said.

The suspect then got into a squabble with the store clerk, before making his way for the exit and shoving the second female officer on his way out, authorities said.

Outside of the store, he continued to motion toward his waistband and refused the officer’s repeated demands to stop advancing, cops said.

Several minutes before this encounter, the man was picked up on surveillance footage at Westside Market on Third Avenue at 12th Street taking a taking a bottled drink from the shop without paying for it.

A store manager said that the man "had been coming to the store for years and sometimes gets a bit agitated."

Updated:

The Times has more of narrative here.

One of the officers tried to stop the man with a Taser, but the device did not work, according to a police department statement. The man shoved the second officer, and as he rushed outside, and she followed him. He was shot moments later, as he reached for a sheath on his belt, the police said.

“Once outside, the male continued to motion toward his waistband and refused the officer’s repeated demands to stop his aggressive advances,” a police summary of the incident said. “The officer, as well as an additional responding officer to the location, discharged their firearms and the suspect was struck in the arm and torso.”

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank God that sometimes the cops are exactly where you need them to be.

You have to wonder how drunk/high/stupid/crazy this man was to start a fight in a deli where 2 police officers are already present.

And what the hell is happening to this neighborhood? If I didn't already live here, I wouldn't be looking at any apartments to rent in this area. And I REALLY wouldn't consider buying a condo at sky-high prices.

Anonymous said...

WTF is wrong with people? If you lunge at cops with a weapon, expect a reaction. Boy. What crazy times we are now living in.

TG said...

and, basically the same thing happened last night in BK: https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-nypd-shooting-brooklyn-20200604-ykzmdsnzm5fybklpxdvryoqxe4-story.html

Anonymous said...

Defund the police!

Anonymous said...

welp....
Have been away for the last week...

Can you guys let me know when the coast is clear?

Anonymous said...

I am shocked but these comments. Many homeless people with mental health conditions live in this neighborhood and are harmless unless provoked. We need de escalation NOW.

Anonymous said...

Anon @11:27, if you really believe that’s what should be done, do your part:

When the time comes that you need the police, don’t call them.

Have a nice day.

Anonymous said...

@12:16pm: First of all, this man (IF he was homeless, and we don't know that yet) was definitely NOT "harmless." You say he must have been provoked.

Can you explain how a man (and I will presume he's mentally ill, for the sake of your point) who walks into a bodega and gets into an argument with the clerk & threatens the clerk with a knife has been "provoked"? Who/what provoked him? If the voices in his head (or his "demons" or whatever constitutes his mental illness) tell him to threaten people with a knife, WHERE did the provocation come from, and what should the clerk who was threatened have done?

What does "de-escalate" mean in this context? Does it mean you let the guy walk out with his knife still in his hand, to threaten others? Do you let the guy rob the store? Do you give the guy a lollipop if he drops the knife?

I'm interested in how you think this SHOULD have been handled - particularly if you will imagine that YOU yourself were standing there as a customer in that bodega early this morning.

Anonymous said...

My friend was chased in the neighborhood two days ago at around 6:30pm by one of these "harmless unless provoked" people waving a knife.

Anonymous said...

In response to comment about not provoking homeless with mental issues: I don't think anyone here signed up to be an orderly in an insane asylum by virtue of living in the city. While I certainly emphasize with people's various troubles, those do not translate into extra rights while in public space at the expense of everyone else. If these individuals cannot at least act sane, then for everyone's safety they need to be committed.

Anonymous said...

1.09 PM.

Well said.

Anonymous said...


right on ! to anon at 1:00 and 1:09 ( lollipop ! ) !
perfect replies

Anonymous said...

11:27 am "Defund the Police"??? What would that do? The Police Depts across this country need a system wide overhaul. This will cost a lot of money to fix. If you think that getting rid of the NYPD is the answer then get used to this chaos.

Anonymous said...

EV Grieve, could we refrain from parroting "police-involved shooting"? Irrespective of the facts of this case, I think we can say "police shot" without resorting to this police department-approved kind of obfuscating language.

Anonymous said...

@nyscanner has video of the incident. Man had small dog with him on leash and did not appear to be homeless

Anonymous said...

Updated story in NYDN
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-police-involved-shooting-east-village-knife-20200604-bs3cinbewfdapew2ihi6ijeuaa-story.html

EV Grieve said...

Agreed. It’s a police-reporting cliche to be avoided as well as lazy writing. FWIW I see ABC 7, NBC 4 and NY1 used the same phrasing. We can all do better.

Anonymous said...

I saw the security footage. The man with a knife had a dog. Does anyone know what happened to the poor dog?

Giovanni said...

Maybe the media should also use phrases like “bullet-involved projectile” and “leg-involved ass kicking” when discussing matters they would rather not discuss. Another media trope is when they show a video io a bad car/boat/train/plane accident, and almost always ending their reporting with the phrase “But no one was seriously injured.” They must define “seriously injured“ as losing several limbs, a few major organs, and a few pints of blood.

The bigger picture here is the media seems to be playing up these unrelated, random attacks on police in order to distract from the serious beatings police are giving protesters and curfew breakers alike. Today, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea had the nerve to claim challenge the media to name one protester who has been seriously injured, as if we all haven’t seen the beatings on the news and social media.

Here’s one protester whose injury Dermot Shea certainly knows about: her name is Dounya Zayer, a tiny girl who was assaulted by a much bigger male officer. She was violently pushed to the ground by a cop during a march, a cop who kept on walking along with his Lieutenant, even as she lay there wounded in the street. She hit her head on the curb, and she was in the hospital with a concussion and also is suffering from seizures. Like George Floyd’s murder, it was all caught on video, and social media is the only reason why we know it happened.

I guess the media will call this a “police-involved shoving,” but morality side, it is our tax dollars that have to pay out settlements for police misbehavior. In the past 2 years, NYC paid out over $300 million in settlements for police misconduct. If that isn’t enough proof that our policing is broken then I don't know what is.

Anonymous said...

all the cop loving law and order boomers who comment here are the worst part of the east village. just crusty ass motherfuckers who were born on third base and think they hit a triple (as far as coming up when rents were low and you could live in a US city for cheap), think they’ve got artistic cred by osmosis, personally jumpstarted and still defend gentrification, and lump all young people together as this scary other even though the young are at best totally disenfranchised artists who make the city great or at worst transient yuppies who will move to the burbs soon anyway so you don’t have worry about them.

it’s disgusting to be against graffiti or protesting or loud noises in the east village. the second you start to complain about quality of life here you need to leave. sublet your fucking rent controlled dump and go live in indiana if you hate it so much. this place has a beautiful history and you and your ancient ass peers are ruining it by fluffing it and selling it to jared kushner. we must embrace protests for change and for chrissakes embrace anything that will reduce rent and precious fucking property values so that the voices of the young can drown out the old nasty croaks of people who forget their neighborhood was built on hard left resistance, intense constantly changing nightlife, generations of immigrants and no holds barred experimentation.

LPIFLY said...

This whole situation just made no sense on so many levels after watching the video. The titally normal looking guy holds up the knife while walking a healthy/happy looking dog for what... a pack of cigarettes? Then the hero bodega guy gets the knife while dangling the cigarettes never once losing his cool. One female officer runs away and the other female officer runs behind the counter with a gun drawn the whole time. Says her taser wasn't working calls it in. Then the officer who ran away from the incident, rather than say use her taser, draws a gun and fires when the now knife less guy walks out and comes towards her. Did she have a right to shoot. Yes, especially if she didnt see what happened inside to know the knife was gone and they jad just jad a possible terrorist attack hours earlier involving a knife. I get that... but still this whole thing looked a little sloppy police wise. Bodega guy was hopping over the counter about to kick some ass. He's lucky he didn't get shot too.

DrGecko said...

@anon who was still up at 2:34 am -

I agree with everything you said except for your disgusting use of "boomer." We boomers have been here for decades. We were (and still are) the artistic and active people you claim to side with. We're the ones who protested and were beaten by the cops (including me).

If there's a generational problem, it's with the finance bros, not us old-timers. We boomers have lived here for a long time. The young 'uns are the newbies.

Like duh.

Anonymous said...

@drgecko - specified the cop-lovin' law and order types you always see popping up around here! Definitely not folks like yourself out keeping it real.

The unfortunate difference between them and the finance bros, I think, is that the finance bros are always already migrating elsewhere, and were never invested in the neighborhood to begin with...

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 2:34 am. Go back and read the post you left. You're confused. My "ancient ass" moved here 30 years ago from, yes, Illinois to create art! I'm still a disenfranchised artist. I would hope I'm a very small part of the history that makes the neighborhood "rich in history" and interesting to the bros and the ponytails with yoga mats. Gentrification has been trying to get me out for years but you think older people are the problem? You are misguided and sound a little bratty.

No one said anything about noise, graffiti, or protests. Some lunatic had a knife in the deli. Does anyone want that? I didn't want it in 1989 and definitely not now. The world did not begin the day you were born. Be respectful to older people in the neighborhood who have lived here a long time; you might actually learn something and expand your mind. I have always loved my older neighbors; they made the neighborhood.

anonymous said...

Why?? Because they stopped a knife wielding lunatic? Give those cops a medal!! That guy was a danger to himself and others!! 🤦‍♂️