NEW YORK — For the third time in less than 12 hours, NYPD officers opened fire on a man, this time a suspect who allegedly brandished a weapon near a crowd at a train station in the Bronx, police say.
Officers were called to the scene at the West 238th Street and Broadway elevated subway station in the Kingsbridge neighborhood just before 8 p.m. Thursday, New York police said at a news conference. When police arrived, witnesses at the station pointed to the man who allegedly displayed a gun.
Officers approached the man and told him to drop the gun, which he did not, police said. Instead, he started walking south on an overpass adjacent to the subway tracks, toward the next station on 231st Street.
Some officers followed the man onto the catwalk and continued to tell him to drop the gun, which he still allegedly refused to do, sometimes pointing the gun at officers. Another group of officers began approaching him from the other side as he approached the next station, police said.
When he pointed the gun again, an officer fired, the NYPD said. The man was shot in the left hand, forcing him to drop the gun.
Officers on the bridge secured the weapon and rescued the man, who has not yet been identified, but police say they know him. He was taken to hospital where he is expected to survive.
Police said the gun (pictured below) was not a real gun, but an imitation or BB gun that closely resembles a real firearm.
An investigation is underway.