Police: Officer fatally shoots man who attacked him with metal chair

NEW YORK >> A man who attacked a New York City police officer with a metal chair, critically injuring him, was fatally shot by the officer on Friday, police officials said.

The officer fired after efforts to subdue the man with a Taser were unsuccessful, Chief of Patrol Rodney Harrison said.

The officer, a 21-year veteran of the New York Police Department, was in a medically induced coma in critical but stable condition, Harrison said.

Police officials said the fatal confrontation occurred at a nail salon in Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood shortly after 5:30 p.m.

They said it started when a man entered the salon to use the bathroom but instead started urinating on the floor.

Harrison said salon workers flagged two uniformed officers on patrol and asked them to remove the man.

The officers attempted to arrest the man, who had an active warrant, but he resisted, Harrison said.

At that point a second man entered the store “and engaged in a violent struggle with the uniformed officers,” Harrison said.

“One of the officers deployed a Taser, but it was ineffective in stopping the threat,” Harrison said. He said the man “continued his violent struggle with the officers by raising up a metal chair and striking one of the officers in the head.”

He said the officer fired at the man six times. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Authorities have not identified the officer or the man who was killed in the shooting.

The shooting was the fourth fatal police shooting by a New York City police officer in less than two weeks.

Police officials who spoke at a news conference at the hospital where the injured officer was being treated stressed the seriousness of his injuries.

“An attack on a uniformed officer doing his duty is an attack on society at large, and we can’t have that,” First Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Tucker said.

Harrison said, “This incident underscores the dangers officers face each and every day.”

Pat Lynch, the head of the Police Benevolent Association, added, “This police officer spent his career in our busiest precincts serving the community and he was set upon for no reason. There is never, ever an acceptable reason to attack a New York City police officer.”

Officials said the injured officer’s partner was treated for ringing in his ears and released.

The man who touched off the chain of events by urinating on the store was later arrested, police said.