NYPD cops shot a young man who stabbed an 8-year-old boy to death and wounded his own parents in a luxury Queens apartment building Thursday, police sources said. (Editor's note: The suspect later died of his injuries.)
The violence erupted in a building on 94th Ave. near Sutphin Blvd. in Jamaica around 5:15 p.m. on Independence Day, cops said.
The 29-year-old wounded woman, who sources say may be a stepmother to the suspect, ran out to the street and to a nearby train station where she asked MTA police for help, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said at a Thursday evening news conference.
“She was stabbed, but she was holding her head more than anything else,” said a witness who watched the woman run out of the building. “She was out of it, [and] she was running to wherever she was running to.”
MTA cops called NYPD officers, who were at the apartment building within three minutes. The 8-year-old’s parents were not believed to have been home at the time of the attack.
“The police and EMTs grabbed [the wounded woman] as she ran up the block and put her in an ambulance,” the witness told the Daily News.
Cops quickly interviewed a witness and made their way up to the “extremely small” fifth-floor apartment, where the 20-year-old suspect had a knife to his 43-year-old father’s neck, Chell said.
As the man held his father’s head over a kitchen sink, the officers issued numerous commands in both English and Spanish to drop the knife, but he refused.
“They have to use their weapons to save this man’s life and that is what they did,” Chell said.
An officer fired one round, striking the attacker, police said.
Also inside the apartment was an 8-month-old baby girl, who was thankfully unharmed.
A woman standing across the street from the building watched as medics brought the suspect and victims out.
“I saw them bring the guy out,” said Rosalyn Blair, 34. “He was restrained. He was tied across his arms and across his legs to the stretcher.”
The suspect was bleeding from the head as medics loaded him into an ambulance, according to Blair.
“A female officer was holding a baby girl in a blanket,” Blair continued. “She looked fine, she wasn’t crying or anything.”
The baby, her parents and the mortally wounded boy — believed to be the attacker’s brother or stepbrother — were taken to an area hospital, where the child died. Both adults were expected to survive the traumatic event.
The suspect was critically wounded and underwent surgery later Thursday evening, sources said.
The officers involved were taken to North Shore University Hospital for observation, where they were briefed on the aftermath of the horrifying incident.
“As we were walking in, they were just being informed the 8-year-old passed away,” said NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry. “To see the emotional trauma on those officers’ faces. One of them said, ‘We wish we could have gotten here a little sooner.'”
Neighbors were stunned by the outburst of violence in the upscale building.
“Living in New York City, a lot of things don’t surprise you, but this is a safe building,” said a woman who asked not to be named. “You don’t expect this with a doorman.”
In a post on X, police asked people to avoid the area as they investigated Thursday evening.
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