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Man Shot Down In New York Meat Cleaver Attack On Off-Duty Cop

By Ruchi Gupta
Published on: 23:04 PST, Sep 15, 2016

A man was gunned down in New York After attacking an off-duty police officer with a meat cleaver as he was running away. The New York meat cleaver attack took place on Thursday during the rush hour. The man was running from the cop wielding a meat cleaver, and things took a turn for the worse when an off-duty NYPD officer tried to stop the man but ended up being attacked and wounded on the face. The officers in pursuit then shot the man before he could cause any more harm.

The incident reportedly started when one of the police officers found the man trying to remove a clamp from his car. The police officer confronted the man but the situation then turned into a foot chase through the streets of New York. The man was also holding what appeared to be a meat cleaver which prompted the NYPD officers in pursuit to consider the man as highly dangerous.

An off-duty officer making his way to the Penn Station after work saw the chase approaching his direction and immediately decided to engage the suspect. Law enforcement officials claim that the suspect then attacked the NYPD officer, and inflicted a cut on his face.

[Image by Julie Jacobson /AP Images]

NYPD Chief Jimmy O’Neill stated that the off-duty officer sustained a six-inch gash running from the temple to the jaw.Jonathan Schneier who is one of the witnesses described the incident to reporters.

“I saw a deranged individual with a very large meat cleaver… Probably six to eight officers engaged the suspect verbally, told him to drop his weapon.”

Shneier claims that the police officers shouted at the suspect whose name was Joudeh, telling him to get down. Three uniformed police officers then opened fire at the suspect and shot a total of 18 times. There were claims that the police officers might have used excessive force But O’Neil told reporters that given the circumstances, the action was justified.

“He had just attacked an off-duty officer who had a 6-inch gash on his face.”

Officials also stated that a second police officer suffered some injuries to the back during the incident. Some of the witnesses also claim that the shots were necessary since the man seemed deranged and had already attacked the officers. It was also vital for the police to neutralize the situation as fast as possible considering that the suspect was wielding a weapon and his actions were a threat to the public.

The injured policemen and the perpetrator were rushed to hospital for medical attention as soon as the situation was neutralized. It is not clear why the incident escalated so fast yet it could have been dealt with ease had the suspect cooperated with the authorities. The police officials revealed that Joudeh had past criminal records and had been arrested a few times before. The officials, however, declined to go deeper into details.

[Image by Frank Franklin II /AP Images]

Public records revealed that Joudeh was found guilty of misdemeanor offenses in 2010 and was sent to jail for nine months. The records also show that he was charged with criminal possession of stolen property grand larceny in 2009 but those charges were dismissed. He was also fined for unauthorized use of a vehicle but he did not serve any jail time. There is speculation that his recent incident was most likely driven by the fear of having to go back to jail.

Some of the witnesses claim that Joudeh’s actions made him appear wild and deranged during the incident on Thursday. The NYPD officials are yet to determine what could have caused the meat cleaver-wielding man to run from the authorities and also attack the officers.

[Featured Image by Julie Jacobson /AP Images]

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