Cop dead-on
Shoots, kills fiend who attacks with knife
AN NYPD transit cop fatally shot a knife-wielding man who slashed his neck Thursday during a bloody clash in Brooklyn, officials said.
Officer Filippo Gugliara, 24, was patrolling the Ocean Parkway station on the Q line in Coney Island at 1:15 p.m. when he saw Oleg Tcherniak attacking a 78-year-old woman at the foot of the stairs, police sources said.
When Gugliara intervened, the 58-year-old ran off, police sources said. The cop chased Tcherniak around the block onto Sea Breeze Ave. and had the suspect against a wall before Tcherniak slashed him using a Fallkniven hunting and fishing knife with a 5-inch blade, cutting the cop’s shoulder and neck, police said.
Gugliara pulled his gun during the scuffle and fired twice, killing the older man, officials said.
“When I got there the guy was facedown — his face in the cement — in a pool of blood,” said fisherman Glenn Narcez, 53, who ran to help the elderly woman fight off Tcherniak before Gugliara arrived.
Tcherniak died sprawled out — the $170 knife a few inches from his hand.
A few moments later, the woman he attacked ran over.
“He’s insane!” the woman screamed, showing witnesses her bruises. “The guy who was shot, he punched me . . . he pushed me.”
Gugliara was rushed to Lutheran Medical Center for treatment of a nonlife-threatening injury, cops said.
The young cop joined the force in 2013. After the execution-style murders of Police Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos in December, he railed against the city on social media.
“Me and my fellow cops should protest/strike,” he posted on Twitter. “This city and its people clearly don’t respect us. Where these people having our back? Nowhere.”
But on Thursday, Gugliara was all smiles as Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton visited him at the hospital. “We had a great conversation,” de Blasio said. “Thank God the officer is well. He is an example to us all.”
Gugliara was saved by his bullet-resistant vest, according to Bratton. The vest’s shoulder strap deflected the knife before cutting into his neck, lessening the blow.
“Our officer is very fortunate,” said Bratton. “If (the knife) penetrated the officer’s neck, it would be a very different story.” Gugliara’s Gravesend neighbors were overjoyed that the youngest of three, who still lives with his retired postal worker dad, was going to make a full recovery.
“They’re a traditional Italian family,” longtime friend Jack Amatore, 76, said. “They all have Sunday dinner with the grandma. He’s just a good kid.”
NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said Tcherniak attacked the senior after she witnessed a fight between himself and a worker at a nearby fruit store. When the woman left the store, Tcherniak followed and jumped her before Narcez and Gugliara responded.
Tcherniak, a former barber, had a prior arrest in which he threatened to cut another barber’s tongue out, law enforcement sources said.
Family friends disputed police accounts, claiming Tcherniak, who suffers from diabetes, couldn’t walk far, much less run away from pursuing cops.
Thursday’s gunplay was the second time a cop shot at a suspect in the city in 15 hours. Four police-involved shootings have taken place in the past week, according to the NYPD.