A New York City police officer was stabbed in the neck by a man in Brooklyn late Wednesday in what is preliminarily believed to be an unprovoked attack, police said. Two other officers were shot in the chaotic scene that involved gunfire.
All three officers are expected to recover, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said at an early Thursday news conference. The suspect, who was not identified, was shot multiple times and was in critical condition at a hospital.
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A motive in the stabbing and whether it was connected to unrest in the city following the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis last week, was not clear.
“What we know at this point in time is that it appears to be a completely cowardly, despicable, unprovoked attack on a defenseless police officer — and thank God we’re not planning a funeral right now,” Shea said.
The suspect is a 20-year-old Brooklyn man, law enforcement officials said, and he was shot eight times.
The stabbing happened at around 11:45 p.m. in the Flatbush neighborhood as two officers were assigned to an anti-looting post. Surveillance video shows a man “walk up to the officers casually, take out a knife and stab one of the officers in the neck,” he added.
About a block away, a police sergeant and officer heard gunfire, responded and found the suspect with what investigators believe was a gun from one of the officers, Shea said, adding that the information was preliminary.
Multiple body camera video shows “an extremely chaotic, rapid situation that is dark” and police were still establishing what exactly occurred, but 22 shell casings have been found and it is thought a number of officers fired, he said.
The two injured police officers were shot in the left hand, police officials said. The knife wound missed an artery and that officer is stable at the hospital, Shea said.
