NEW YORK (AP) – A man who was shot by police on a crowded New York City street after he struck an off-duty detective with a meat cleaver was initially stopped because he was trying to remove a boot from a vehicle that he was apparently living in, authorities said.
The shooting happened about a block from Macy’s department store and Madison Square Garden around 5 p.m. Thursday, just as rush hour was getting underway.
Police said the confrontation began when two uniformed officers encountered Akram Joudeh, 32, trying to remove an immobilizing boot from a parked vehicle.
As the officers approached him, Joudeh pulled out an 11-inch meat cleaver and ran, police said. A group of officers chased him, and at one point shot him with a Taser, with no apparent effect.
A bystander, Jonathan Schneier, said when he left work to get coffee he saw a man holding a large knife, surrounded by officers yelling at him to drop the weapon.