A man was shot and killed Thursday after he pointed a gun at several people and said he intended to attack a hospital, New York police said. Associated Press (AP).
Officers took the man to the hospital in a police car, where he was pronounced dead, Patrol Chief Felipe Rivera told the AP. Several officers were taken for medical evaluation.
Police said the incident began around 7 p.m. in the elevator of an apartment building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where the man spoke briefly to another resident before pulling out a gun and pointing it at him.
He then entered a nearby restaurant, pointed a gun at an employee and asked him to call 911, saying he was going to the hospital to “shoot him,” according to the British newspaper “Daily Mail”. AP.
Shortly thereafter, the man entered Mount Sinai Medical Center. He briefly left the building and placed a firearm on the ground, but later returned inside, where he told an officer working a paid security shift that he had a gun, police said. When the officer tried to escort him outside, a struggle broke out and the man retrieved his weapon. The officer called for backup.
The man then walked down the street and confronted officers who arrived in police cars. The man “immediately fired his gun at the officers” as they exited, Rivera said. The officers returned fire and wounded him.
“Every day, our officers put on their uniforms and face dangerous situations all over this city,” Rivera said. “But there’s another kind of danger when someone walks into a deli and a hospital with a gun and opens fire directly at the NYPD.”
Rivera did not provide further details about the man’s identity.
(tags for translation) New York
