Dramatic video shows officers shoot man holding 2 knives

The Oct. 22 encounter unfolded in little more than 30 seconds.

ByABC News
November 27, 2017, 5:19 PM

— -- New York City police released body camera footage Monday that shows the shooting of an apparently suicidal man during an encounter last month.

The footage, released after consultation with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, shows the wounding of a 27-year-old man who came at the officers with two knives after they were called to his apartment on West 143rd Street in Hamilton Heights, police said.

The Oct. 22 encounter unfolded in little more than 30 seconds. The officers knocked at the apartment door and immediately saw the man with two knives, police said. After repeated commands, the footage shows, an officer fired once, striking the man in the leg.

“The police officers immediately began performing first aid and called for an ambulance,” Assistant Chief Rodney Harrison said at the time.

Responding to a call regarding an emotionally disturbed person is the kind of encounter police have routinely described as one of their most dangerous.

Since 2015, the NYPD has been training officers to defuse the 157,000 annual encounters with mentally disturbed individuals.

The man was hospitalized with a non-life threatening injury. He was charged with attempted murder and attempted aggravated assault on a police officer on Nov. 9 and is due in court on Tuesday. He has not yet entered a plea.