NEW YORK — Officers responding to a domestic incident in Queens shot and injured a man armed with a machete Monday, the NYPD said.
Charges are pending against the suspect after police said they recovered the machete at the scene.
Police arrived at an apartment on 33rd Street between Broadway and 31st Avenue in Astoria at around 9:45 a.m.
Officers said the 911 caller indicated a man had taken a lot of pills, said he wanted to die, and was armed with a machete. But the woman who said she called 911 has a different story, CBS2’s Aundrea Cline-Thomas reported.
Brianna Cortez, who identified herself as the suspect’s girlfriend, said she called 911 to come to her mother’s home while having an argument with her child’s father, who she identified as “Eddie.”
“I was not scared for my life. I just wanted him to leave. I did not think that anything like that was going to go down,” Cortez said.
Four officers responded and tried to get others out of the apartment. Police said they confronted the 27-year-old suspect in a narrow hallway. They said he was holding the 911 caller’s mother, but officers were able to get the woman out of harm’s way.
“I saw when they grabbed my mother, they took her and pulled her to the ground. They ripped her shirt off, everything. She has marks all over her,” Cortez said.
“Four uniformed officers arrived at the scene within minutes and were told that the individual inside was still armed,” NYPD Chief of Department Kenneth Corey said during a news conference. “As the officers were trying to remove people from the apartment, the man confronted them in a narrow hallway, holding the 911 caller’s mother. After getting the older woman out of the apartment, the officers deployed a Taser. The Taser had no effect.”
When the Taser didn’t work, an officer fired three shots, according to authorities, striking the man in the groin area. The man was taken to the hospital and is expected to survive.
“He just said that ‘I got shot.’ Just being very vocal and aggressive with the cops,” said Feres Zedeia, a witness.
Two officers required medical attention.
Cortez disputes the police account and said she and the man were having a verbal argument.
“There’s a rather extensive domestic history between the 911 caller and the subject,” Corey said. “There have been multiple allegations of domestic assault, harassment. Orders of protection have been in effect.”
Cortez disputes there was a long history of problems between her and the suspect.
The couple’s 3-year-old child was in the home during the ordeal. The child was not hurt, but police said they were required to notify the Administration for Children’s Services.
“He was coming to see his kid, and we get into arguments about what he was doing, this, this, that,” Cortez said.
Cortez insisted it did not have to end this way.
The involved officers’ body camera videos are being reviewed.
