Sources identify man fatally shot during violent incident at Brooklyn Hospital
Sources identified the man who was shot by police inside New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital as 62-year-old Michael Lynch. They say Lynch used to be a police officer.
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Sources have identified the man who died in a violent incident that led to a police-involved shooting inside New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital in Park Slope on Thursday night as 62-year-old Michael Lynch.
They say he used to be a police officer.
Investigators say the incident began just before 5:30 p.m., when multiple 911 calls came in reporting a violent man armed with a knife inside the hospital.
Police say the man was already an admitted patient. It's unclear why he was admitted.
Officers responded to the eighth floor, where doctors, nurses and hospital security told them the patient had barricaded himself inside a room.
Police say the man had cut himself, hurt other people and was threatening to kill a hospital security guard and another patient who were trapped inside the room with him.
According to police, officers saw blood on the walls, the floor and splattered across the door.
They say officers spent several minutes giving repeated verbal commands for the man to drop a makeshift sharp object.
Police say officers first tried using Tasers, but they were not effective. When the man advanced toward officers while still holding the weapon, police say they fired their guns.
“The subject then advanced towards the officers again, still with the weapon in his hand,” said the commanding officer of Patrol Borough South during a news conference. “Officers again deployed tasers, but the deployments were not effective.
Officers then discharged their weapons, and the subject was struck. He was pronounced deceased a short time later.” The weapon was recovered at the scene, and police say the entire incident was captured on officers’ body-worn cameras. A hospital visitor, Cheryl Wallace, said she was inside the building when the situation escalated.
“I heard shots. There was a scuffle prior to the shots, and then they made all of us hunker down in the room,” Wallace said. “It’s a lil scary.”
Police say three people were treated by hospital staff. No conditions or identities have been released.
Sandy, a visitor who came on Friday, says it's frightening.
"I was scared I was really scared because I was saying to myself 'Oh my God, what could it be?'" said Sandy.
This was the first police-involved shooting of the year and the first during Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s term.
