Cops Kill Knife-Wielding Man in Standoff on Brooklyn Bridge

A tense standoff high above the East River ended in a deadly police shooting on the Brooklyn Bridge early Friday. As ABC7 reports, NYPD emergency service officers responded around 3:30am to reports of a man climbing the bridge and found him walking on the cables, apparently armed with a knife, officials said. Commanding Officer Gerry Dowling said officers clipped themselves to the structure and spent nearly an hour trying to talk him down as he allegedly declared, "I want to die. I want you to kill me," and claimed to have a bomb.

The man began moving quickly down the same cable the officers were tethered to, raising the knife within a few feet of an officer, and a member of the 84th Precinct Emergency Services Unit on the ground fired once, striking him, Dowling said. He was later pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital. A knife and flashlight were recovered; his name has not been released. The New York Times notes that the incident, which briefly shut down Brooklyn-bound traffic near rush hour, comes days after police fatally shot a knife-wielding woman in Times Square.