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New York police fatally shoot man who stabbed student in synagogue New York police fatally shoot man who stabbed student in synagogue
(about 1 hour later)
Police say a man stabbed a student in the head inside a New York synagogue before being shot dead by police after he refused to drop the knife. A man who stabbed a Jewish student in the side of the head in a prominent New York synagogue was shot dead by police after lunging at officers with a nine-inch blade.
Police say the confrontation happened at 1.40am (6.40 GMT) on Tuesday at the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic headquarters in Brooklyn. The incident was captured in a dramatic video obtained by the New York Post, where onlookers in the basement of the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic sect in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood ask the suspect to put the knife down while an officer points his gun at the man.
A witness flagged down a police officer, who confronted the 49-year-old man. He initially put the knife down but then picked it up again. More officers responded and ordered the man to drop the knife. Police say he refused and charged at one of the officers, who fired once, striking the man in the torso. The standoff between officers and the suspect took place after the 49-year-old man reportedly entered the synagogue close to 2am, asked for a Bible, walked out and returned to stab a 22-year-old student in the side of the head, according to the Post. The student was conscious but bleeding profusely.
The man was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead. According to witnesses, the attacker repeatedly said “Kill the Jews,” Chaim Landa, a spokeswoman for Chabad-Lubavitch, told the Associated Press.
Authorities say the 22-year-old stabbing victim is in a stable condition. An officer on foot patrol in the neighborhood was flagged into the synagogue by a bystander and told the man had already stabbed someone.
Neither man has been identified. Inside the synagogue basement, the video shows an officer pointing his gun at the man as he holds a knife, and several men in hasidic clothing ask the man to put the knife down, or set it on the table.
“You gonna shoot me? You gonna shoot me, yo?” the man with the knife asks an officer.
“If you don’t drop the knife I will,” he says, as onlookers urge the armed man to, “Put the knife [down], put the knife, put the knife.”
The suspect sets the knife on a nearby table, and the situation appears to de-escalate as the officer holsters his handgun. Then, the man suddenly lunges for the knife and at an officer. The videographer cuts away from the scene as officers yell, and one shot is fired.
The shot hit the man in the torso, and he was taken to Kings County hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. The 22-year-old student was taken to the same hospital, where he is listed in stable condition, police said. Three officers, including the one who shot the man, were taken to Methodist Hospital for tinnitus, or ringing in the ears.
Members of the synagogue told the Post: “It’s the first time this has happened at a New York synagogue.”
“I come here everyday to know that somebody died here, it’s scary. It needs to be a secure place.”