New York police officer attacked by man with 11-inch meat cleaver

US: An off duty police officer in New York has been attacked by a 32-year-old insane man armed with a meat cleaver after an argument broke out over his car getting clamped near Penn Station in Midtown during rush hour on Thursday before being shot 18 times by police, officials say.


The attacked police officer, Detective Brian O’Donnell was left with a 6-inch gash that runs from his temple to his jaw and his attacker identified as Akram Joudeh in critical condition.

In a briefing by the NYPD Chief of Department Jimmy O'Neill, he said police had initially confronted the man near West 31st Street and Broadway as they caught him trying to remove a boot from his car front tire which was parked near 30th St. on Broadway when two cops approached him.

 

Joudeh, got angry and pulled an 11-inch cleaver from his waistband. He began threatening the officers before running up Sixth Ave., with the knife in his hand.

Police used a stun gun on the man, but it had no effect, said O’Neill.
O’Donnell, a 16-year NYPD veteran tried to calm tensions down as Joudeh leaped onto the front grille of a responding squad car.

“The detective ran from across the street and knocked him off the car and pushes him into the UPS truck,” said NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Counterterrorism John Miller. “That’s when the suspect hits him in the face with the meat cleaver.”

 An MTA worker who requested anonymity said;

“He was running down the street, waving it,” “The cops were chasing him.”

Panicked passersby jumped out of the way for knife-wielding Joudeh when O’Donnell, who was on his way to catch a train at Penn Station, joined the chase.

“He ran down the sidewalk past me,” said a stunned Richard Dewald, 56, a registered nurse. “I was standing next to where the cops were standing with their guns.”

Another witness Jonathan Schneier who saw the incident said;

"I heard police from behind me screaming, 'Get down, get down, get down!'"  "I saw a deranged individual with a very large meat cleaver... Probably six to eight suspects engaged the suspect verbally, told him to drop his weapon."

According to reports by the New York Post, police officers shot the attacker, hitting him multiple times.

In a report by the New York Post citing law enforcement sources, uniformed police officers had been called to the area to pursue the man with the cleaver, who was angry his car had been clamped. When the suspect refused to drop his weapon, a sergeant stepped in and tasered him.

A fight broke out and an off-duty detective who happened to be there at the time of the incident tried to help his colleagues, but was struck by the man in the head with the meat cleaver.

The officers started shooting at the attacker, hitting him multiple times. A bullet scraped one of the officers in the back, while a third officer was also wounded.

 

The wounded officers were taken to Bellevue Hospital but their injuries weren’t thought to be life-threatening.

Detective O’Donnell who was struck with the cleaver is undergoing surgery, but isn’t thought to have life threatening injuries.