NYPD cops shot and wounded an armed woman who charged at them as they responded to a Queens home invasion where four people were stabbed, officials said Saturday.
Cops responding to multiple 911 calls — first for a home invasion, then for a man stabbed — arrived at the single-family home on 149 St. near N. Conduit Ave. in South Ozone Park about 9:45 p.m. Friday and knocked on the locked front and back doors repeatedly with no response.
Eventually, two men, one with visible stab wounds, appeared at a second-floor window, NYPD Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera told reporters at the scene early Saturday.
The wounded man shouted down that he had been stabbed by his uncle, but couldn’t come downstairs to open the door because his uncle was on the first floor.
After cops requested the Emergency Service Unit, the Technical Assistance and Response Unit and the Hostage Negotiation Team, a woman came to a third-floor window on the side of the house and tossed a set of keys down to the officers.
As they heard screams coming from inside, cops used the keys to open one door, forcibly entered a second door, and entered the home, where they repeatedly identified themselves as NYPD, Rivera said.
“When they got to the third floor, they entered into a small bedroom, and they encountered a chaotic scene with two males and a female,” said Rivera. “There was one male sitting on the floor, a second male on top of him, and a female who was on top of both of them.”
The officers told the three people to put their hands up, and they separated, with the two men obeying their commands.
“The female pointed with her left hand at one of the males across the room, but did not raise her right hand. The officers continued to issue the same verbal commands,” Rivera said. “The female still did not comply and moved in the direction of the officers with a knife in her hand.”
“She was within several feet of the officers when an officer discharged his firearm, striking her. She fell to the ground,” he continued. “An officer deployed his Taser, and another officer recovered the knife.”
The cops carried the woman downstairs and performed “life-saving measures” before medics brought her to Jamaica Hospital, where she is expected to survive. Criminal charges were not immediately filed.
The woman shot by police had been stabbed during the chaotic scene inside the house before officers arrived, along with three men cops found in the house. Medics took one man to Jamaica Hospital and another man to North Shore University Hospital with minor injuries.
Police recovered two knives, including a bloody serrated kitchen knife, at the home. It was not immediately clear what sparked the home invasion or the bloody fight inside the home before cops arrived at the scene.
Rivera said they “do not have reason to believe” the woman shot by an officer was responsible for either the home invasion or the initial stabbing reported in 911 calls.
“They are members of our civic Association. The father was president of our civic association,” Marie Williams, a neighbor and family friend who lives on the quiet, leafy block, said of the victims.
“They’ve been in the neighborhood for over 50 years,” she said. “It’s unbelievable. Just can’t believe it.”
Officers’ body-worn cameras captured the chaotic incident, and the NYPD’s Force Investigation Division is investigating, Rivera said.