NEW YORK _ A man attacked two NYPD officers with a meat cleaver Thursday afternoon in Manhattan, striking one _ an off-duty detective _ in the face before the other opened fire, hitting the suspect and grazing a third officer, officials said.
Three officers and the suspect were taken to Bellevue Hospital Center for treatment after the 4:59 p.m. attack at 32nd Street and Sixth Avenue. Mayor Bill de Blasio arrived at the hospital early Thursday night.
The officer struck with the 18-inch meat cleaver was listed in serious condition with a 6-inch gash to the face, said Chief of Department Robert O'Neill at a news conference Thursday night at the scene.
Commissioner William Bratton, on his final day leading the NYPD, identified the suspect as Akram Joudeh, 32, with a last known residence in Queens. Officers fired up to 18 shots during the altercation, officials said.
Joudeh, who had been living his car, was in critical condition, O'Neill said.
At the news conference, Bratton said investigators were going over "significant video of this incident."
When asked why officers expended so many shots, Bratton said they had no other choice.
He commended the officers for "their performance. You have a character running down the street with a meat cleaver. The officer fired sufficient rounds to stop the attack."
The officer grazed by a bullet was also taken to Bellevue. It was not clear how the third officer taken to the hospital was injured.
Bratton said the off-duty detective was on his way to Penn Station to head home after appearing in court when he "did what any officer would do" after seeing the altercation, and ran to assist.
O'Neill said the attack occurred after officers approached Joudeh as he attempted to remove a steel parking boot from a his car at 31st and Broadway. He pulled out the meat cleaver and fled on foot north on Broadway with at least six officers in pursuit, O'Neill said.
When he got to 32nd Street, O'Neill said, the man took a left turn as a pursuing officer hit him with a Taser. The weapon had no effect and Joudeh then mounted the hood of a patrol car parked on 32nd Street, O'Neill said.
The off-duty detective attempted to knock the cleaver from the man's hand when he was sustained a six-inch gash, O'Neill said.
The violence erupted in midtown just as many workers were preparing to leave for the commute home.
Witnesses described a chaotic scene that unfolded so rapidly it all didn't seem real at first. A sudden burst of gunfire echoed across the high-rises on 32nd Street, one witness said, and pedestrians ran for cover as NYPD officers descended on the scene.
Other witnesses said workers leaving their offices ran for cover. One woman said she thought it was a terrorist attack.
Rockville Centre lawyer Joseph Sands was in his office nearby when the sound of six pops of gunfire got his attention.
"I heard gunshots from my office, pow, pow, pow, pow," he said. "Then all of a sudden, I heard sirens."
The ensuing scene was like nothing he'd seen before.
"It sounds terrible," Sands said. "I'm surprised to hear it anywhere. I just know it from movies."
Pierre Damico, 62, from New Hyde Park, was shopping on 32nd Street when he heard the shots. He estimated he heard about four or five.
"My heart is still going," he said. "Everybody just took off. It's scary. It didn't sound like a gun either."
After the gunfire rang out, cops and pedestrians took off on foot, said Franchesca Benitez, 26, the manager of Mandee Boutique in the Manhattan mall on the corner of Sixth Avenue and 32nd Street.
"We were getting ready to do a shift change and I heard shots," she said, estimating about four to six. "I saw everybody running and police running."
Initially, she said, she thought it was a car crash or even a terrorist attack. She ran to the other Mandee store that is further back in the mall. There, she found employees trying to hide in dressing rooms.
"It was crazy, it was insane," she said. "I didn't know what to think, just commotion."
Cory Melton was at 32nd Street and Seventh Avenue checking his phone when he heard shots. He said he saw a man on the ground and cops were "working on him."
"I saw someone being detained on the ground. And he was being worked on," Melton said. "I didn't see any blood. I saw bullet holes in the windshield."
