A 37-year-old man was shot and killed by police in Greenwich Village after he pulled an imitation pistol on cops as he tried to escape a car crash, officials said Friday
The deadly confrontation at the corner of Bedford and Downing Sts. was the second police involved shooting to erupt in the city within five hours Thursday night, cops said.
The suspect was motoring through Greenwich Village in a BMW at about 10:50 p.m. when he crashed into another car at the corner of Bedford St. and Sixth Ave., Assistant Chief James McCarthy, the commanding officer of Manhattan South, said at an early-morning press conference Friday.
Gardiner Anderson / New York Daily News
Police investigate an officer-involved shooting on Bedford St. and Downing St. in Manhattan on Friday. (Gardiner Anderson / New York Daily News)
Cops called to the scene were met by two people who said their vehicle collided with the BMW driver, who then drove off.
But the BMW driver didn’t get far, McCarthy said.
“The BMW was stopped in traffic when the officers approached,” McCarthy said. “At that moment, a 37-year-old male exits the BMW, drew what appeared to be a firearm and pointed it at the officers.”
“Once observing the firearm, the officers discharged their weapons,” McCarthy said.
The man “said nothing” as he pulled the gun on the officers, McCarthy said.
Gardiner Anderson / New York Daily News; NYPD
Police investigate an officer-involved shooting on Bedford St. in Greenwich Village on Friday. Police released an image (inset) of what they described as an imitation gun they said a man used in the confrontation. (Gardiner Anderson / New York Daily News; NYPD)
Even after being shot, the suspect held onto his weapon and “maintained possession of the firearm as officers repeatedly gave commands to drop the weapon,” McCarthy said.
“The officers repeatedly, as shown on body-worn cameras, asked him to drop the gun because they wanted to render him aid,” McCarthy said. “He didn’t say anything.”
EMS rushed the man, a resident of Staten Island, to an area hospital, where he died of his wounds. His name was not immediately disclosed.
Bullet holes are pictured in the rear windshield of a white BMW as it’s towed away from the scene on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (Rebecca White / New York Daily News)
The officers involved weren’t harmed, but were taken to area hospitals for observation.
The tan-colored firearm turned out to be an imitation pistol, he said.
“For the second time tonight, we’re reminded of the real danger our officers encounter every day to protect the people of New York City,” McCarthy said, referring to the 5 p.m. shooting in New York Presbyterian-Brooklyn Methodist Hospital earlier in the evening.
Police released an image of a bloody piece of a broken toilet which they said was used by a man who barricaded himself in a hospital in Park Slope and threatened staff. (NYPD)
In that case, police shot and killed a patient armed with the jagged shard of a broken toilet seat inside a room at the Park Slope hospital at Sixth St. and Seventh Ave.
Officers responding to reports of a knife-armed man threatening to kill hospital staff around 5:30 p.m. found the 62-year-old suspect barricaded inside an eighth-floor room, Assistant Chief Charles Minch, the commanding officer of Patrol Borough Brooklyn South, told reporters at a press conference outside the hospital.
Inside the room, where blood was splattered on the door, walls and floor, police found another elderly patient and a security guard trapped with the suspect, who had cut himself, Minch said.
Gardiner Anderson / New York Daily News
Police respond to an officer-involved shooting at New York Presbyterian Methodist Hospital on 7th Ave. in Brooklyn on Thursday. (Gardiner Anderson / New York Daily News)
The suspect refused repeated commands to surrender, menacing officers with a blood-soaked blade and holding the door shut as police tried to enter, the chief said.
The suspect advanced on police after a roughly seven-minute standoff and officers deployed stun guns, which failed to incapacitate him, according to Minch.
The man advanced a second time and again police fired their stun guns.
Gardiner Anderson / New York Daily News
Police respond to an officer-involved shooting at New York Presbyterian Methodist Hospital on 7th Ave. in Brooklyn on Thursday. (Gardiner Anderson / New York Daily News)
It was after the suspect advanced on police for a third time that officers opened fire with their service weapons, striking the man, who later died, Minch said. The man’s name was not immediately released.
Police recovered a weapon from the scene, which was later determined to be a shard of a broken toilet seat, sources said.
Both shootings were recorded on the officer’s body-worn cameras, officials said. The NYPD’s Force Investigation Division is investigating both incidents.