A wild story coming out of a Brooklyn hospital last week, involving a former NYPD officer, a piece of a toilet seat and a fatal shooting.
It was Thursday, January 8, just before 5:30 p.m. when police were called to the New-York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital in Park Slope for reports of a man armed with a knife on the hospital’s eighth floor.
The suspect, now identified as Michael Lynch, 62, of Forte Greene, Brooklyn, reportedly locked himself inside of a hospital room with an elderly patient and a hospital security employee, Assistant Chief Charlie Minch said in a Thursday evening press conference.
Hospital staff reportedly told police Lynch had cut himself and then made threats to harm others and kill staff members, police said in the press conference.
Officers said they could see blood on the walls and floor of the room.
According to police, Lynch then appeared in the doorway “holding a bloody weapon” and refused repeated commands by officers for several minutes, “issuing dozens of commands” to drop it.
Lynch was reportedly armed with a piece of a toilet seat he had broken off and was using it to repeatedly cut himself. He also tried to cut another patient and a security guard, police said.
He also repeatedly attempted to forcefully shut the door with the two people still trapped inside, according to police. When officers attempted to intervene, Lynch reportedly moved toward officers while holding the weapon, resulting in police deployed a taser.
“The subject stepped towards the officers with the weapon in his hands and simultaneously a taser was deployed and a firearm was discharged,” Minch said.
The taser was not effective and the man continued to try and close the door.
Police spent several more minutes attempting to force the door open and continued giving verbal commands, Asst. Chief Minch said.
“The subject then advanced towards officers again still with the weapon in his hands. Officers again deployed tasers, but those deployments were not effective,” Minch said. “Officers then discharged their firearms and the subject was struck. He was pronounced deceased a short time later.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani issued a statement following the incident, calling the shooting “devastating” in an X post.
“These tragedies are painful, whether they take place steps from our home or miles away,” wrote Mamdani in the post. “They are a reminder of the immense work that must be done to deliver genuine public safety — work [NYPD] Commissioner [Jessica] Tisch and I are undertaking together every day.”
9/11 Hospital Ship Sits Abandoned in Hudson Valley
Gallery Credit: Tigman