A man who shot by a police officer after allegedly assaulting his girlfriend and refused to drop his knife has been arrested, officials say.
Shamel Jones was arrested Sunday morning, police said. The 19-year-old was charged with assault, menacing, criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree and criminal mischief.
Police were responding to a 911 call on Intervale Avenue in Hunts Point at about 7:15 p.m. when a woman approached the officers in their patrol car and told them her boyfriend had assaulted her, police officials said at a news briefing Wednesday night. She had visible injuries on her eye and forehead.
The officers went with the woman to canvass the area, and she pointed out Jones to them, officials said. When the cops went to approach him, he began running and fled into a nearby building.
Three officers and one lieutenant followed him into the building and spotted him going into an apartment. A man there let the officers inside, and that's when they saw Jones in the kitchen brandishing a large knife, about 12 inches in length, with a 7-inch blade, officials said.
He refused to drop the knife, and officers used pepper spray on him, to no effect. He continued to advance on the officers, and that's when one officer fired a shot, hitting him in the lower back.
Jones was taken to a local hospital in critical condition.
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Officials said an additional 911 call supports the officers' claim that he advanced toward them with a knife in hand.
Jones' mother denied that her son had a knife, although she didn't witness the encounter. She said other witnesses told her he was carrying roach spray.
The officers involved were taken to hospitals to be evaluated but were not physically injured.
