Police shoot, kill knife-wielding man on Brooklyn Bridge cables

New York police fatally shot a knife-wielding man who was walking on the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge after he repeatedly ignored orders to drop the weapon, authorities said Friday. The man died in hospital after the shooting, which closed the bridge and disrupted morning traffic.

Gerard Dowling, commanding officer of the New York Police Department’s Emergency Services Unit, said a 911 caller reported that the man appeared to be trying to jump from the bridge. Officers secured themselves to the bridge with safety harnesses and spoke with him for about an hour, telling him they wanted to help bring him to safety.

Dowling said the man said he wanted officers to kill him and claimed to have a bomb. After repeatedly being told to drop the knife, he began descending a cable quickly toward officers positioned below him. When he came within about three feet, or 0.9 metres, of an officer and raised an arm with the knife extended, an officer on the bridge roadbed fired one shot, Dowling said.

Officers brought the man down and provided aid. His name was not released. Police recovered a knife and a flashlight; whether a bomb was found remains under investigation. Body-worn cameras recorded the encounter, Dowling said.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said officers tried to de-escalate the situation and urged the man not to jump. He said the man threatened officers while holding a knife, then moved into close proximity to responding officers before one officer fired.

Dowling said Emergency Services Unit members receive specialized training for high-risk incidents, including de-escalation, compassionate engagement, high-angle rescue, scuba and emergency psychological technician training. The cable-supported Brooklyn Bridge, which opened in 1883 and connects Manhattan with Brooklyn, has towers 276.5 feet, or 84 metres, above the water; police did not say how high on the bridge the incident occurred.

The shooting came four days after a woman randomly stabbed two people near One Times Square, killing one, before officers fatally shot her. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said 49-year-old Queens resident Pamela Cisneros stabbed a 68-year-old man and then a 32-year-old woman, who later died. Officers spent several minutes trying to persuade Cisneros to drop two knives and used a Taser, which did not incapacitate her, police said. She then moved quickly toward officers while waving the knives and was shot by two officers.