Copkillsattacker
Shoots man who lunged at him with machete in Bx.
AN NYPD DETECTIVE shot and killed a man who charged him with a machete inside a Bronx apartment Tuesday, police said.
Members of the NYPD Emergency Service Unit were serving a search warrant at a third-floor apartment on Brook Ave. near E. 138th St. in Mott Haven about 4:10 a.m. when they found Mario Sanabria in a rear bedroom holding a “machete-type sword with a 2-foot blade,” according to NYPD Chief of Patrol Terrance Monahan.
The detective, identified by sources as Ruben Leon, and his partner repeatedly ordered Sanabria, 69, to drop the weapon but he wouldn’t. When Sanabria stepped toward them, Leon fired, blasting him in the chest, police said.
“As the suspect continued to approach, the lead officer discharged one shot from his firearm, hitting him in the chest,” Monahan said.
Sanabria’s brother-in-law, Natalio Conde, 92, told the Daily News he was dozing in the same room when he heard a commotion.
“I saw people in my living room,” he said. “I thought I was dreaming. I thought it was a holdup.”
Conde was still groggy and asked, “What happened? What happened?”
“Someone grabbed him (Sanabria) and pushed him to my bed,” he said. “He (Sanabria) said, ‘What’s going on?’ Then bang! He was shot . . . The police say, ‘Come on! Get outside!’ ”
Medics rushed Sanabria to Lincoln Hospital, where he died just before 5 a.m., police said.
Conde was taken to Lincoln Hospital for observation and released.
The machete, which had a 26-inch blade, was found at the scene. Sanabria had owned it for years, Conde said. No police officers were hurt. None of the cops had body cameras and there is no recording of the fatal shooting, officials said.
An sergeant equipped with a Taser was in another room and didn’t have a chance to use it before Leon fired, a high-ranking police source said.
“There was no time,” the source said. “It was a split-second decision.”
Police sources said Sanabria had prior arrest in the city — and the complaint is sealed. There’s no indication that he was mentally ill, cops said.
The cops were there on a search warrant on a report that a tenant, identified by police sources as Miguel Conde, 38, stashed a handgun and some drugs inside.
Miguel Conde — Natalio Conde’s son — wasn’t home but showed up after the shooting and was taken into custody.Charges against him were pending.
No guns or drugs were recovered.