B’DAY PARTY TRAGEDY
Gramps cuts wife, killed by cops after charging at them with knife: NYPD
Relatives and neighbors of a 46-yearold Queens man gunned down by cops at his grandchild’s first birthday party were confounded Saturday by how a happy celebration ended in a violent confrontation with police.
“I don’t know why (it) happened. I don’t understand it,” a longtime friend of Dgamshed Nematov said Saturday outside the late father of four’s home on 62nd Ave. in Rego Park. “I’m upset. Upset.”
Nematov, 46, was shot and killed by police on Friday after he allegedly stabbed his wife with a long, serrated kitchen knife at their grandchild’s first birthday party, authorities said.
Nematov’s son called 911, police said. Shortly after officers climbed the stairs to the second-floor scene around 6:50 p.m., Nematov charged with the knife at three cops and a sergeant, said police officials.
“This situation was fast-paced and dynamic,” NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said at a news conference late Friday, shortly after the incident.
The sergeant fired a Taser at Nematov, and two of the other cops fired four rounds with their service weapons, Maddrey said.
The officers performed CPR on the victim before EMS rushed him to an area hospital, but Nematov died from his wounds. The knife was recovered at the scene.
Amira suffered two knife wounds to her stomach, both inflicted before officers arrived at the scene, police said. She was recovering Saturday at a local hospital.
Nematov and Amira have two boys and two girls between the ages of 14 and 23, friends said.
Next-door neighbor Marcela Rueda was laying down when she heard the chaotic commotion.
“We heard arguing, yelling,” Rueda recalled. “We heard kids in the hallway back-and-forth and then it went silent for a bit, maybe about a minute or two, and then we just heard the four gunshots. They were really really loud.”
Nematov immigrated to the U.S. from Uzbekistan and had lived in the building for a decade. Rueda only knew him in passing, but couldn’t believe he was capable of such violence.
“They have four kids,” she said. “We’ve seen them all grow up. We were really, really shocked.”
Rueda never heard Namatov and his wife argue until about “a week ago,” she said.
“Maybe last week I heard some arguing but that’s all I heard,” she said. “Nothing crazy.”
It was not immediately clear if cops had been called to the apartment previously to handle any domestic disputes between Nematov and his wife.
Neighbor Ilgor Jon on Friday said Nematov didn’t speak English.
“Maybe he didn’t understand them [the police],” Jon said. “He never was aggressive, especially with the police — he’s afraid of them.”
The NYPD’s Force Investigation Division was reviewing the cops’ response, officials said.
The killing stunned Nematov’s extended family.
“Everything is good. Every time happy. He was a good man. No drinking. No smoking,” Nematov’s cousin Eavakh Alim, 40, told the Daily News. “I’m surprised. I don’t know why this happened.”
Nematov’s friend, who would only identify himself as Shehroz, said his chum had been out of work after suffering a hernia, but appeared fine when the two met up on Thursday.
“He was OK,” Shehroz said. “He was a good guy.”
Another friend, who would only identify himself as Michael, agreed.
“I don’t know about what happened to him, but he is a very good man,” recalled Michael, 31. “They were very good people. They brought up their children by making honest work.
“Yesterday they quarreled and such a sad thing happened,” he said.