Police shot a maniac after he lunged at them with a box cutter in Brooklyn Wednesday — leaving him clinging to life, police said.
The broad-daylight violence erupted when detectives on a lunch break spotted a fight involving the 33-year-old man and a white BMW driver around 1:50 p.m. on Avenue K and Utica Avenue in Flatlands.
When one of the detectives “placed himself” between the two, the man with the box cutter tried to attack police, according to authorities.
Officers at the shooting scene near Utica Ave. and Ave K. Paul Martinka
A box cutter recovered at the scene of the shooting. DCPI
A hat and other debris seen on the ground at the scene of the shooting. Paul Martinka
“This person came within three to four feet of our detective with a box cutter out in his hand,” said Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny at the scene.
“He refused numerous directives to drop the weapon, so the officer felt he was an immediate threat to himself and to the person this subject was originally trying to stab.”
Police were “forced” to open fire.
NYPD Officer Tyra Harrison (center) was one of the detectives involved in the shooting. NYPD115PCT“The detective then was forced to discharge one round from his firearm, striking the subject in his torso,” Kenny said.
He was rushed to Kings County Hospital in critical condition.
Moments before the bloodshed, the unhinged attacker chucked “an object” at the white BWM, leading to the altercation with the stranger — which was caught on nearby surveillance footage, Kenny told reporters.
The man is in critical condition at Kings County Hospital. Paul MartinkaThe wounded man, who police did not identify, had three prior run-ins with law enforcement for calls related to his mental health.
Both detectives were taken to a nearby hospital for ringing in the ears, sources said.
Tyra Harrison, the daughter of former NYPD Chief of Department Rodney Harrison, is the partner of the officer who fired the shot and was on the scene during the incident, according to sources.
She joined the department in April 2021 and quickly rose the ranks, becoming a detective last October.
In 2022, a year after retiring from the NYPD, Rodney Harrison joined the Suffolk County Police Department and helped crack the Gilgo Beach serial killings.
