A man armed with a meat cleaver attacked a New York police officer near Manhattan’s Penn Station Thursday evening.
The New York Police Department reported just before 5 p.m. officers received a call for a crime in progress near West 31st Street and Broadway, NYPD Commissioner William Bratton told reporters. The responding officers encountered a man who pulled an 11-inch meat cleaver from his waistband and fled the scene. Another officer chased the suspect and used his taser on him, but the man continued to run.
Down the block, where 32nd Street meets 7th Avenue, the suspect jumped on top of a marked police vehicle. An off-duty plain-clothes NYPD detective attempted to subdue the man when he was struck in the head, causing a six-inch wound. Officers then shot the suspect multiple times.
The officer and suspect were both taken to the hospital, according to J. Peter Donald, NYPD’s assistant commissioner for communication and public information. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio went to Bellevue Hospital to check on the affected officer injured in the attack.
It is not clear if the attack was terrorism-related.
