A 54-year-old man who advanced on police with a butcher knife after attacking his father inside their Lower East Side apartment building was killed after three NYPD cops fired a total of nine shots, police sources said Monday.
Police opened fire on 54-year-old Wei Chan as he advanced on them inside the apartment building on Ludlow St. near Rivington St. while ignoring repeated orders to “show his hands” around 4 p.m. Sunday, according to NYPD Assistant Chief Melissa Eger
Neighbors told the Daily News they heard “yelling and screaming” as police responding to a 911 call for an assault rushed into the building.
“First it was all the doorbells going off like crazy,” said a neighbor living in the building. “I hear all these people coming up and yelling.”
The man then heard multiple gunshots in quick succession, saying, “It was not like one gunshot.”
Police sources said that three officers fired nine shots total at the suspect.
Medics rushed Chan to Bellevue Hospital, where he died.
Julian Roberts-Grmela / New York Daily News
A photo of a butcher knife recovered at the scene of an officer-involved shooting on Ludlow St. is displayed at a NYPD press conference on Sunday. (Julian Roberts-Grmela / New York Daily News)
“There was lots of yelling and crying and confusion,” Chan’s neighbors said regarding the shooting’s aftermath. “There wasn’t a lot of blood up here, but the downstairs floor — that’s where all the blood was.”
Chan’s father, 75-year-old Cheung Chan, was treated at Bellevue Hospital for a cut to his head from where his son had struck him, according to Eger.
Another neighbor, who gave his name as Bradley, 40, said he spotted Chan’s father in the building Monday morning.
“He had a bandage on his right arm, neck, pretty bandaged up,” said Bradly, who just moved into the building on Sunday.
“I would say his demeanor probably is congruent with somebody that is aware that there had been systemic problems,” Bradley added. “He didn’t seem like he was in shock.”
Julian Roberts-Grmela / New York Daily News
Police investigate after a man armed with a butcher knife was shot by NYPD officers on Ludlow and Rivington Sts. in Manhattan on Sunday. (Julian Roberts-Grmela / New York Daily News)
The incident was captured on body-worn cameras. The footage has not yet been released by the NYPD.
Cops recovered the butcher knife at the scene, Eger said.
Chan does not have a criminal history but does have a “documented mental health history with the department,” Eger said.
The NYPD Force Investigation Division is examining the incident.