Police fatally shoot knife-wielding man in Astoria: NYPD
QUEENS, N.Y. (PIX11) -- Police fatally shot a man holding a knife after a standoff in Astoria Monday morning, according to NYPD Chief of Department John Chell.
The man was hospitalized after a shooting near 31st Street and 30th Avenue around 6:21 a.m., police said. He died at the hospital after police fired "numerous times," Chell said.
The man was reportedly "acting erratic" with a knife, Chell said. Chell said the man was in "mental distress," and had previous interactions with the police related to mental disorder.
Police told the 61-year-old to drop his knife, and deployed tasers that were somehow "ineffective," Chell said. Then, officers shot at the man multiple times, Chell said.
"We'll find out exactly why [the tasers] did not work the way we wanted them to," Chell said.
The shooting happened near the 30th Avenue N/W subway station. A manager of a nearby supermarket said the shooting is uncommon in the area.
"This is really a quiet neighborhood," said a manager of a nearby supermarket.
In a statement, multiple elected officials said the man had a "reported history of mental illness," and the shooting exemplifies failures in the city's mental health infrastructure. City Council Member Tiffany Cabán, state Sen. Kristin Gonzalez, and state Assembly Members Zohran Mamdani and Jessica González-Rojas signed off on the statement.
"As we await more details, here are things we know: there are glaring gaps in our city’s mental health infrastructure. There are glaring gaps in our city’s emergency response infrastructure, particularly as it relates to New Yorkers with mental illness," the elected officials said.