NYPD Officer Shoots, Kills Alleged Knife Attacker in Manhattan: Updates

• Warning: Graphic images below.

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — Police officers shot and killed a 46-year-old white man who approached them with an 8-inch knife near West 49th Street and 8th Avenue during the Wednesday morning rush hour, according to the NYPD.

At 8:20 a.m., police said, the suspect entered the Food Emporium near that intersection and "became aggressive, belligerent and swearing toward workers in the store."

Then, according to NYPD Chief of Department James O’Neill:

"A uniformed police officer on a foot post was alerted and he confronted the male. The subject began to struggle with the officer and they fell to the ground outside the store. As the suspect got back on his feet, he displayed an 8- inch knife and approached the officer and two other officers who were coming to his assistance. The officers ordered the suspect to drop the knife and he continued to approach them with the knife in his hand. At this point, one officer and a sergeant fired at the suspect."

The man was pronounced dead at the scene directly after the 8:30 a.m. shooting, according to both fire and police officials. His name had not been released by 2:30 p.m., pending family notification of his death.

A 46-year-old woman was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, police said, but was in stable condition by late morning.

One officer also suffered minor injuries — apparently "during the prior struggle with the suspect," according to the NYPD.

In a phone conversation with Patch directly following the shooting, a police spokesperson said: "The female was stabbed by the male perpetrator. That man was encountered by police, and he was shot."

However, by 10:30 a.m., the NYPD narrative was instead that the woman had been grazed on the wrist by a police bullet.

Verizon workers were staging their daily NYC strike very near the crime scene Wednesday morning, a union representative said, but no one was hurt.

"It was an intense scene to begin with," union rep Bob Master told Patch.

Twitter user John Moeller wrote that he heard "lots of Verizon protestors" outside his office building, then "multiple gunshots." When he ran to look out the window, he said, he noticed a knife on the ground below.

Graphic photos taken at the scene, some of which are included above, showed a man in a backpack lying on the street, face down, his hands behind his back and a trickle of blood running from his head.

A nearby newspaper vendor told DNAinfo: "I heard three shots. Boom, boom, boom. One after another. Everybody started running up Eighth Avenue. It was so scary."

An hour after the shooting, around 9:30 a.m., NY1 reported that 8th Avenue was closed to traffic between 42nd and 52nd streets, and that West 49th Street was blocked off at 8th Avenue.

Lead photo via @NYCityAlerts/Twitter