Police shot and killed a man Sunday afternoon after he allegedly slashed his 75-year-old father in the head and then advanced on officers with a large butcher knife inside their blood-stained Manhattan apartment, authorities said.
NYPD officers were dispatched to the Ludlow Street residence on the Lower East Side around 4 p.m. for a report of an assault in progress. When they arrived, police said, they found a trail of blood that led them up the stairs of the building.
“Officers entered the building, saw the trail of blood and responded without hesitation, not knowing what was waiting for them as they went up the stairs,” Assistant Chief Melissa Eger said during a press briefing later Sunday evening.
As the officers climbed the blood-streaked staircase, they encountered 54-year-old Wei Chan, who was armed with a large butcher knife and moving toward them, Eger said.
According to the NYPD, officers repeatedly ordered Chan to drop the knife, but he did not comply.
“Officers responded and discharged their firearms, striking the subject,” Eger said.
Witness video from the scene showed emergency medical workers performing CPR on Chan before he was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Officers also found Chan’s father, Chung Chan, 75, on the second floor with a head laceration. Investigators determined the elder Chan had been cut by his son, according to police.
He was also rushed to Bellevue, where he is listed in stable condition and is expected to survive, according to authorities.
A couple from Brazil in the city for their honeymoon were shocked by the bloody aftermath they witnessed as first responders attended to the father and son.
“I thought it was a neighborhood fight,” said Fabio Gutierrez, 43, who was having dinner with his new wife, Debora Martins, at a nearby restaurant when the violence went down.
“We saw the guy getting on the gurney, they were giving him CPR,” Martins, 38, added.
“I’ve never seen someone who seemed like they were dying,” she told The Post.
“We are tourists here; we are not used to seeing that kind of violence. So it was really, really shocking to see the guy in that state.”
Martins said she saw another man covered in blood being taken down the street by cops.
“He was not good. He was all bloody,” she said.
The 75-year-old does not know that his son is dead, sources said.
Chan does not have a prior criminal history with the NYPD, but has a documented mental health history, police said.
No officers were wounded during the altercation, and the knife was recovered from the scene.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he had been briefed on the officer-involved shooting and wished the wounded victim a “full and speedy recovery.”
“As with every incident in which NYPD officers discharge their weapons, there will be an internal investigation, and body-worn camera footage of the incident will be released,” Mamdani said in a statement.
Additional reporting by David DeTurris
