NEW YORK, NY- In New York City, where mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani wants to defund the department and close jails, an NYPD officer was slashed in the face in the borough of Brooklyn Sunday morning by a lunatic armed with a 14-inch butcher knife after he entered a police precinct via the back door, NYPD officials told The New York Post.
After the attack, officers chased the attacker, identified as 36-year-old Justin Coleman, on foot and shot him to death after he refused to drop the weapon and lunged at an officer, NYPD Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera said.
The attack occurred in the early morning of Sept. 7, when Coleman tried to enter the 73rd Precinct in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. When the female officer confronted him, he pulled out the knife and slashed her in the face, Rivera said. Officials believe he intended to slash her throat.
The female officer, the daughter of two NYPD detectives, one who is an active officer, was able to partially block the attacker’s blade with her arm, but was cut on the top of her head and her left ear, PBA President Patrick Hendry told The Post.
A second officer was able to tase Coleman to no effect. He fled out the back entrance of the building with police hot on his trail. When police caught up to him, he brandished the knife and charged at police outside a housing project on Saratoga Ave., located about two blocks away, Rivera said.
Hendry praised the victim officer’s actions and told The Post her parents had seen her in the hospital.
“Being a police officer is in her blood. But her parents see their daughter in a hospital, it’s very traumatic for them,” he said.
“But she did a tremendous job tonight,” he continued. “She could have been killed there. This knife was coming right for her, but she was able to block it off. She used incredible skill, and thank God she was able to do that, and she was able to save many lives out here on the street because we don’t know what he was capable of doing.”
He further added that her actions were a credit to America’s finest.
“She knew that her goal was to get this individual off the streets,” Hendry said.
“She knew that he was a danger to the people in this neighborhood, and she didn't care that she was injured at that point. She wanted to stop the threat, and that’s what she did. She made chase along with other police officers.”
Police said that while her injuries ended up not being serious, she dodged a bullet. Rivera told reporters she was “in good spirits.”
“This situation could have turned out very differently,” he said. “This is the risk that every NYPD officer faces every single day.”
Hendry also criticized the anti-police environment that has sparked such brazen attacks on police officers.
“This is a dangerous environment our police officers are under,” he said. “This is what people feel, that they can just come into the stationhouse and attack a New York City police officer.
“That is not acceptable, and now going forward, there needs to be a message sent that if you attack a police officer…going to courthouses across the city, you know, those who attack a police officer need to face consequences, true consequences,” Hendry said.
Coleman, who was shot multiple times by police officers, was transported to Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn, where he succumbed to his wounds.
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