NYPD officers shot and wounded a man with “history of mental issues” who lunged at them with a kitchen knife inside a Queens home Monday morning, authorities said.
Cops were called at about 10:25 a.m. to the house on Parsons Boulevard near 85th Avenue in Briarwood, where a relative reported that a 22-year-old man was “throwing glass against the wall,” according to Assistant Chief Christopher McIntosh, commanding officer of Patrol Borough Queens South.
The crazed man, who was in the kitchen when cops arrived, then “retrieved a large kitchen knife and began to advance toward officers,” McIntosh said.
A family member stepped in and tried to “restrain” the armed man — who has “a history of mental issues” — but he continued to “advance” toward officers while clutching the blade, the police official said.
“The officers gave repeat warnings to the male to drop the knife and attempt to de-escalate the situation,” McIntosh said. “The male ignored these repeat commands to drop the knife and continued to advance towards the officers, still armed with the knife, moving from the kitchen to the living room.”
Cops closed the glass door leading to the living room, and issued more commands through the door for the armed man to drop his weapon “and attempted to deescalate the situation,” according to the chief.
But the blade-wielding man barged through the door and continued to lunge at the cops, McIntosh added.
“At this point, officers discharged their weapon at the armed male,” he said.
Officers quickly applied a tourniquet to the wounded man and handed him over to EMS workers, police said.
He was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition and undergoing surgery.
He has no previous arrest history, but police responded to an “emotionally disturbed person” incident involving him just last month, law enforcement sources said.
It was not immediately clear how many times the suspect was shot or by how many officers.
The knife – seen in an image released by the NYPD – was recovered at the scene, cops said.
The officers were taken to a local hospital to be evaluated for tinnitus.
The tense ordeal was captured on the officers’ body-worn camera footage and is being probed by the department’s Force Investigation Division, police said.
A next-door neighbor told The Post he was outside shoveling snow when he heard cops demand, “Drop the knife!” followed by a flurry of gunfire.
“I heard, ‘Drop the knife, drop the knife’ a few times and then four shots,” the neighbor said, speaking through his window behind police tape. “Officers came barreling out of the house and it was over just like that.”
He said the whole incident unfolded “within like 10, 20 seconds.”
“The ambulance came and they took him out pretty fast,” said the neighbor, who declined to give his name. “He was moving, disoriented on his side on the stretcher.”
The resident recalled that the suspect had “some problems.”
“I think he has some type of developmental delays, some type of emotional disturbances,” he said. “He’s an innocent guy, nice kid who is always walking his dog.”
