‘I want to die’: Man shot by police for climbing up Brooklyn Bridge cables with knife
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "‘I want to die’: Man shot by police for climbing up Brooklyn Bridge cables with knife")
Representative image. Photograph: (Unsplash)
A man was shot dead by NYPD officers after climbing Brooklyn Bridge cables and approaching them with a knife. Police said they spent nearly an hour trying to de-escalate the standoff.
A man was shot and killed by New York police early Friday after climbing onto the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge and approaching officers with a knife, authorities said. The incident happened around 3:28 am after a 911 call reported a man walking on the bridge’s beams. Emergency Service Unit officers reached the scene and found him on the cables, hundreds of feet above the East River.
Gerald Dowling, the unit’s commanding officer, said officers spent nearly an hour trying to persuade the man to come down safely.
Officers attempted to de-escalate
According to Dowling, the man was holding a knife and told officers: “I want to die, I want you to kill me. I have a bomb. You are not going to make me do something bad to the cops.”
Officers repeatedly ordered him to drop the weapon while explaining that they were there to help.
The situation escalated when the man began moving quickly down the cable towards the officers. Dowling said the officers were secured to the bridge with safety harnesses, limiting how quickly they could move.
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“The officers began to move backwards away from the male, but they were not able to move as quickly as the subject who was approaching them,” Dowling said.
When the man came within approximately three feet of the closest officer, he raised his arm with the knife extended, according to police.
Investigation underway
An ESU officer positioned on the bridge roadbed fired one shot, striking the man. Officers brought him down from the cable and began administering aid. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police recovered a knife and a flashlight from the scene. Officials said the incident was captured on body-worn cameras, which are expected to form part of the investigation. The man’s identity has not been released.
Dowling said the force’s Force Investigation Division was examining the shooting. He also stressed that ESU officers receive extensive training in high-risk rescues and de-escalation.
The shooting comes days after NYPD officers killed a woman in Times Square following a knife attack that left a 32-year-old woman dead.
