A knife used in a weekend police shooting at a New York City subway station went missing from the crime scene, authorities said Monday.
The New York City Police Department released an image of the folding knife, with a blade roughly the width of a man’s palm, on Sunday evening. The knife was wielded by a man who threatened two officers before they opened fire around 3 p.m., wounding the suspect, one officer, and two passengers.
According to police, the knife was removed from the scene by another individual at around 3:35 p.m. on Sunday. The NYPD is now searching for that person and has shared an image of a man wearing a blue hat featuring the logo of the defunct Hartford Whalers hockey team.
A video posted online by a bystander captured the chaotic aftermath, showing panicked passengers fleeing, police rushing to assist the injured, and the wounded officer realizing he had also been struck by a bullet.
The incident began at 3:04 p.m. at the Sutter Avenue station in Brooklyn when two officers approached a 37-year-old man who had entered the station without paying. According to Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, the officers asked the man to stop, but he verbally threatened them and displayed a knife. The officers followed him onto the platform and onto a train that had just arrived. Despite firing two Tasers, the man continued advancing with the knife, prompting the officers to fire multiple rounds.
The suspect was struck several times and remained in stable condition at a hospital as of Monday. A 49-year-old male passenger was critically injured after being shot in the head, while a 26-year-old woman sustained a graze wound.
One of the officers was hit beneath his armpit, with a bullet lodging in his back, but he is expected to recover fully.
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Authorities, including the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, confirmed that video footage captured the encounter, including the moment the officers were threatened with the knife, though the footage has not yet been released to the public.
