Had a knife when cops killed him
A KNIFE-WIELDING Bronx man who was shot dead by cops last month spent his final frantic seconds advancing on two NYPD officers, according to body-cam video the department released Thursday.
The footage was recorded during a Jan. 29 nighttime encounter at Prospect Ave. and E. 181st St. in Belmont.
The street was too dark to allow for a clear view of Michael Hansford, 52, as he chased his landlord around a parked car, at which point police showed up.
But officers from the 48th Precinct are heard telling Hansford 22 times to drop the Rambo-style knife (photo) he was brandishing, said Inspector Kevin Maloney, who heads the NYPD’s Force Investigation Division.
Although the audio is hard to make out, the video shows that the suspect — who earlier had tried to stab his landlord with a smaller knife in an argument over unpaid rent — told cops to shoot him eight times during the encounter, police said.
Police stopped short of characterizing the incident as suicide by cop.
“The guy is saying, ‘Shoot me! Shoot me!’ ”said Deputy Commissioner Stephen Davis, the NYPD’s top spokesman. “[But] I can’t get into the guy’s mind.”
As city policy demands, the Bronx District Attorney’ office is investigating the shooting, as is the NYPD.
But Police Commissioner James O’Neill two days after the shooting said he had viewed the video and believes the cops acted appropriately. COPS ARE asking for the public’s help finding two subway pervs, one of whom groped a Times Square straphanger on Valentine’s Day, police said Thursday.
The Valentine’s pervert stalked his 28-year-old victim out of the A/C/E station at 40th St. and Eighth Ave. at about 11 a.m., cops said. As she climbed the stairs leading outside, he reached up and grabbed between her legs, then ran downstairs.
On Jan. 9, another pervert (photo) chatted up a 61-year-old woman as they both rode a northbound No. 2 train at about 11:50 p.m., cops said. He boarded the train in Brooklyn and started “manipulating himself” in front of her — then fled the train at the 233rd St. stop in the Bronx, cops said.