Man shot by police after fleeing crash in West Village
NEW YORK - A man was shot and killed by police after fleeing the scene of an accident in the West Village, authorities said.
What we know:
The shooting happened just before 11 p.m. Thursday near the intersection of Bedford Street and Sixth Avenue following what police described as a road rage incident.
Officers on patrol were flagged down by two people who reported they had been involved in a crash with a white BMW sedan that was attempting to flee the scene, police said.
Officers located the BMW stopped in traffic nearby and approached the vehicle. According to police, a 37-year-old man got out of the car, and officers opened fire.
"The cops got out of the car and started yelling. Somebody started getting out of the BMW, and then there were like four or five shots," one witness said.
The man was struck by gunfire and taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead about 20 minutes later, police said.
Investigators recovered a fake gun at the scene.
The shooting marked the second fatal police-involved shooting in New York City within about 5 1/2 hours.
Police shoot and kill man wielding knife in Brooklyn hospital
Local perspective:
Earlier in the evening, police responded to NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital in Park Slope after 911 callers reported that a man armed with a blade had barricaded himself inside a room on the hospital’s eighth floor. Police said the man, in his early 60s, had been admitted to the hospital earlier and was threatening to harm himself and others.
Officers found blood on the walls and floor and said the suspect refused repeated commands to drop the weapon. A patient in his 70s and a hospital security guard in his 50s were trapped inside the room with the suspect, police said.
Police attempted to subdue the man with a Taser and then fired a gun when he continued advancing toward officers. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities said the blade was crude and heavily bloodstained, and investigators are still determining how the man obtained it.
Both shootings remain under investigation.
The Source: This report is based on information from police.