{"id":338807,"date":"2026-09-05T13:58:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T13:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/338807\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T13:58:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T13:58:59","slug":"knife-wielding-man-fatally-shot-by-cops-on-brooklyn-bridge-wasnt-mentally-ill-mom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/338807\/","title":{"rendered":"Knife-wielding man fatally shot by cops on Brooklyn Bridge wasn’t mentally ill: mom"},"content":{"rendered":"

A knife-wielding Bronx man who was shot and killed by police in a harrowing clash on the support cables of the Brooklyn Bridge<\/a> was an unemployed welder with no history of mental illness, his grieving mother told the Daily News.<\/p>\n

Chaun Bottom, 42, was shot after a long standoff with members of the NYPD\u2019s Emergency Service Unit<\/a> as he approached officers with his knife drawn hundreds of feet above the East River around 3:30 a.m. Friday, cops said.<\/p>\n

Cops had spent an hour trying to talk him down off the bridge cables before he approached them with a knife, officials said.<\/p>\n

Bottom told police, \u201cI want you to kill me. I have a bomb. You\u2019re not going to make me do something bad to the cops,\u201d before officers opened fire as he approached within 3 feet, his knife extended, Assistant Chief Gerard Dowling, the commanding officer of ESU,<\/a> said Friday.<\/p>\n

But the man\u2019s mother, Deborah Bottom, 68, told the Daily News that none of it makes any sense to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow does he end up going from the Bronx to the Brooklyn Bridge<\/a>?\u201d she said. \u201cMy son wasn\u2019t depressed. My son had no mental health issues. He wasn\u2019t on any medication. My son had no mental health issues, none at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bottom\u2019s mom said she last spoke to her son on Aug. 29 and that she stayed up all night Thursday trying to reach him after he fell out of contact. Another son, who lives out of state, called her Friday morning with news of his death.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son in Minnesota called me and said, \u2018Sit down, Mom. Chaun is dead,\u201d Deborah said. \u201cMy son doesn\u2019t do drugs, and he\u2019s never been in trouble with the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NYPDNYPD police fatally shot Chaun Bottom on the beams of the Brooklyn Bridge on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. (Courtesy of Deborah Bottom)<\/p>\n

The NYPD could not immediately confirm whether Bottom had a criminal record or had any interactions with the police prior to the incident on the Brooklyn Bridge.<\/p>\n

Bottom attended a trade school at 16, earning his master welder certification. He was formerly employed by a construction company, but hadn\u2019t worked for the last five years, according to his mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe lost work when Trump got elected,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was never fired. He was never laid off.\u201d<\/p>\n

The grieving mom said her son suffered from frequent migraines, but didn\u2019t let the affliction affect his work.<\/p>\n

\u201cChaun had migraines since he was a kid, since he was 5 years old,\u201d Deborah said. \u201cThey got worse as he got older.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bottom\u2019s mother said when she met with detectives Friday, she was shown a picture of the weapon her son allegedly wielded, which she said was \u201clike a pocket knife.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was nothing compared to the knife the Hispanic lady had in Times Square,\u201d Deborah said. \u201cWhere was the bomb? They\u2019re making stuff up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dowling said police were investigating the man\u2019s claims that he had a bomb<\/a>, but would not say if any bomb materials were found on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son is a good boy,\u201d Deborah said. \u201cI know parents say that all the time, but my son was a good son. My son worked and didn\u2019t hang out in the street. He was trying to buy a condo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice released an image of the knife they said officers recovered at the scene on the Brooklyn Bridge on Friday, September 4, 2026. (NYPD)<\/p>\n

After shooting Bottom, officers rendered aid until medics arrived and rushed him to Bellevue Hospital, where he died.<\/p>\n

Cops recovered his knife and a flashlight that he dropped, officials said.<\/p>\n

Bottom lived in Parkchester and was described by his next-door neighbor as a quiet man who kept to himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s crazy. I wouldn\u2019t even imagine that,\u201d Nicole, 30, said of her neighbor\u2019s shooting death. \u201cI don\u2019t have a relationship with him, but because I live right here, it\u2019s really sad. I feel really bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s bridge incident was the second time this week cops were forced to shoot an armed suspect, officials said. On Monday, police fatally shot Pamela Cisneros<\/a>, 49, in Times Square after she stabbed two people, one fatally, then refused officers\u2019 orders to drop two knives she was grasping and lunged toward them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A knife-wielding Bronx man who was shot and killed by police in a harrowing clash on the support…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[8749,127205,127206,98,11198,100,99,88995,9,24,63,103,22878,4037,127207],"class_list":["post-338807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-bomb-threat","tag-bridge-cables","tag-bridge-rescue","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-bridge","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-emergency-service-unit","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nypd","tag-police-involved-shooting","tag-unemployment","tag-welder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}