Cops kill blade fiend
Shoot machete guy who cut woman in B’klyn
Police fatally shot a machete-wielding maniac on a Brooklyn street after he hacked at a woman and her dog Tuesday night, cops said.
The gruesome bloodshed unfolded about 6:15 p.m. near the corner of Strauss St. and Dumont Ave. in Brownsville, police said — just a day after an NYPD officer shot and wounded a man during another wild confrontation in Brooklyn.
The unhinged 18-year-old suspect was wandering the street, brandishing his machete and sparking a cascade of 911 calls, police said.
“(He was) acting erratic, laying on the ground, damaging parked vehicles, attempting to enter one caller’s front yard, and chasing people in the area with the machete,” said NYPD Chief of Patrol Juanita Holmes.
He soon focused his attention on a 50-year-old woman walking her pit bull, police said. He chopped at her, deeply cutting her head and both hands, and sliced the dog’s left shoulder, Holmes said.
Medics took the woman to Kings County Hospital in stable condition. The dog went to an area clinic, also in stable condition, Holmes said.
The man then rushed at police, ignoring commands to drop the blade, and an officer fired a single shot, striking him in the chest, Holmes said.
Medics transported him to Kings County Hospital, but he didn’t survive his wound.
Keisha Tull, who lives on nearby Herzl St., said she heard the man was brandishing the machete at people on the block before the unhinged attack on the woman and her dog.
“He was even going to other couples and doing it as well,” she said. “Thank God it wasn’t me and my husband.”
Tull said a young boy was crying after witnessing the violence. “He cried in the park because the cops opened fire in front of him,” she said, referring to nearby Betsy Head Park.
“This is a quiet area. The whole area is peaceful and quiet and people mind their own business, and everyone knows each other,” she said. “I’ve been here nine years and this is the first time I have this happen here.”
The shooting comes a day after police shot a man in the leg on Lenox Road between Bedford and Rogers Aves. while responding to calls about a man with a gun. When police arrived, a man holding a firearm surrendered, but a second man rushed the cops, and one of the officers shot him in the leg.
Charges against both men were still pending Tuesday night.