Woman shot dead by NYPD after fatal Times Square stabbing
Developing story first seen 2 hours ago
A woman armed with two knives was shot dead by New York police in Times Square on Monday after stabbing a man and woman, one of whom, a female tourist, also died. Officers confronted the suspect near West 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue after she fled towards an NYPD substation; witnesses said she was tasered but then charged at officers, who opened fire. The incident, initially reported as a knifepoint robbery, is now believed by police to have been carried out by an emotionally disturbed woman with no clear motive, and is not thought to be terror-related.
Video and witness accounts describe chaotic scenes as the woman pointed a large kitchen knife while surrounded by officers amid screaming tourists, before being shot multiple times when she rushed at police. Both victims were taken to hospital in critical condition; the male victim suffered serious leg injuries while the female victim, who was unconscious and bleeding heavily, later died alongside the suspect. The NYPD has asked the public to avoid the area while it investigates. The shooting comes roughly two weeks after officers fatally shot a 54-year-old man who charged at them with a butcher's knife on the Lower East Side.
- Suspect and one victim died; second victim critically injured in hospital
- Police now say attack was motiveless, not terror-related, not a robbery
- NYPD used a taser before shooting the woman as she charged officers
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Woman shot dead by NYPD after fatal Times Square stabbing needs no repeat, so here's the primer.
Times Square is one of the busiest tourist areas in New York City, packed with visitors, shops and street performers at almost any hour. Because of this, any violent incident there tends to draw a large crowd of witnesses and be captured on video within moments, which is why accounts and footage of this event spread quickly.
The people involved were a woman carrying knives, who police say attacked two bystanders, and NYPD officers who were called to the scene. One of those attacked, a female tourist, later died from her injuries, while a male victim was left seriously hurt. Police say they used a taser before resorting to gunfire, after the woman is said to have run at them.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Advocates of the officers' actions argue that they faced a rapidly unfolding, lethal threat in a crowded public space: a woman had already stabbed two people, one fatally, and after being tasered still charged at armed officers with a large knife. In such split-second circumstances, with bystanders and tourists nearby, officers have a duty to stop an active threat before more people are killed or injured, and less-lethal options had already been tried and failed. Given the immediacy of the danger, this side holds that lethal force was a necessary and proportionate response to protect both the public and the officers themselves.
The case against
Critics who focus on policing of mental health crises argue that the case illustrates the risks of relying on armed officers, rather than trained crisis-intervention or mental health specialists, to respond to an evidently 'emotionally disturbed' individual. They contend that a person in acute psychological distress may not process commands or the threat of tasering rationally, and that repeated incidents of fatal police shootings of knife-wielding, apparently disturbed individuals in New York point to a systemic gap in de-escalation training, resources, and alternative response models. This side values developing approaches that could reduce the likelihood of such encounters ending in death, even while acknowledging the extreme danger officers faced in that moment.
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