4 Girls Stabbed By Relative With Meat Cleaver, Man Shot By Cops: NYPD

NEW YORK — Four girls ages 8-16 were taken to the hospital after a relative attacked them with a meat cleaver before he was shot repeatedly by police at a Brooklyn apartment, according to authorities.

Emergency personnel received a 911 call around 10:15 a.m. Sunday from an 11-year-old girl who said she and her siblings had been stabbed by her uncle but that she did not know her address, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a press conference Sunday afternoon. Authorities were able to detect the location of the phone the child was using and officers responded to the 1600 block of 84th Street, according to Tisch.

A child who was not hurt let police into the building and officers heard screams coming from behind an apartment door and kicked their way into the unit, where they encountered a 49-year-old man holding a large cleaver covered in blood, Tisch said. There was blood on the floor and walls of the home, according to Tisch, who said the man did not comply with repeated orders to drop the weapon, instead advancing toward the officers, two of whom fired a total of seven rounds at the man, striking him. The incident was captured on body camera, she said.

Four girls — ages 8, 11, 13 and 16 — had serious slash and stab wounds, and were taken to a hospital, but were all expected to survive, according to Tisch, who said the 11-year-old had hidden in a room and called police, while a boy who was uninjured ran to alert a neighbor.

The officers were taken to a hospital for evaluation, Tisch said, as was the cleaver-wielding relative, who was in critical condition.

In addition to the cleaver, a second bloody knife was found, according to Tisch, who said the motive is under investigation but the man has a history of mental illness.