NEW YORK — For the third time in less than 12 hours, NYPD officers opened fire on a man, this time a suspect who was said to be waving a gun near a crowd at a train station. of the Bronx, according to police.
Officers were called to the scene at the elevated subway station at West 238th Street and Broadway in the Kingsbridge neighborhood just before 8 p.m. Thursday, New York Police said at a news conference. When the police arrived, witnesses at the station pointed out the man who was said to be displaying a gun.
The officers approached the man and told him to drop the gun, which he did not do, police said. Instead, he began walking south on a walkway adjacent to the subway tracks, toward the next station at 231st Street.
Some officers followed the man onto the gangway and continued to tell him to drop the gun, which he allegedly still refused to do, sometimes pointing the gun at the officers. Another group of officers began to approach him from the other direction as he approached the next train station, according to police.
When he pointed the gun once more, an officer fired a shot, the NYPD said. The man was struck in the left hand, forcing him to drop the weapon.
Officers on the gangway secured the gun and rendered aid to the man, who has not yet been identified, but police said they knew him. He was taken to the hospital where he is expected to survive.
Police said the gun (shown below) was not a real gun, but an imitation or BB gun that closely resembles a real firearm.
An investigation is ongoing.
