What to Know
- A 66-year-old woman was shot and killed by a uniformed sergeant in her Bronx apartment Tuesday evening, police say
- The NYPD had been responding to a 911 call complaining about the woman, who was described as emotionally disturbed
- Police are conducting an investigation into the incident, including why a stun gun wasn't deployed
A police sergeant fatally shot a 66-year-old woman when she charged at him with a baseball bat in her Bronx apartment Tuesday evening, the NYPD says.
Officers responding to a neighbor's 911 complaint about the woman on Pugsley Avenue in Castle Hill entered the woman's seventh-floor apartment at about 6 p.m., according to police officials at a news briefing Tuesday.
A uniformed sergeant encountered the woman, who was naked and armed with scissors, officials said. He persuaded her to put down the scissors but as soon she did so, she picked up a baseball bat and tried to hit him with it.
That's when the sergeant fired two shots from his service gun, officials said. The woman was struck twice in the torso.
She was taken to Jacobi Medical Center, where she died.
The NYPD says it's conducting an investigation into the case, including why the sergeant, who's been with the department eight years, didn't use the stun gun he had on him.
Local
Officials said there had been past 911 reports regarding the woman, who has schizophrenia. One woman who lives in the building said that recently "they brought her out in a straitjacket, she was hollering and screaming."
State Senator Ruben Diaz says the shooting was indefensible.
"To me, it is very difficult to understand how a woman who is [66] years old and has emotional problems should have to die like this, especially if there are four or five police officers in the room with her," he said in a statement.
Diaz says officers need to better trained in dealing with mentally ill people and that if they must shoot, to shoot in the leg.
