Suspect Shot, Killed by Police in Brooklyn Identified

What to Know

  • The armed burglary suspect shot and killed by police in Brooklyn Monday has been identified as 39-year-old Orville Edwards
  • The man had pointed his gun at an NYPD sergeant and another officer at arm's length, police said
  • Neighbors remained jittery in the Bensonhurst neighborhood where the home invasion and subsequent police shooting happened

The armed burglary suspect who was shot and killed by police in Brooklyn Monday night when he pointed his gun at officers has been identified. 

Authorities say the suspect is 39-year-old Orville Edwards, who lived in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. 

Edwards and an accomplice broke into a home on 78th Street in Bensonhurst around dinnertime Monday and terrorized the family inside, police said. Seven adults and a baby were in the apartment. 

A 911 call alerted the NYPD to the robbery, and officers swarmed the scene, cellphone video taken by a neighbor shows.

One witness told NBC 4 New York the gunman ran out of the third-floor window and then down a fire escape, where he came face to face with a police sergeant and another officer after hopping a fence. 

"As the suspect came over the wall, the sergeant was right there," said NYPD Chief of Department James O'Neill. "He actually had to push his arm away. It was close, up close." 

O'Neill said that the man had a revolver and pointed it at the sergeant. The sergeant tried to knock the gun away, and he and the other officer each fired their guns at the suspect, who was hit twice.

Neighbor Rene Attias said she heard the two shots.

"I screamed, and then I saw an officer running. And I saw the man on the ground," said Attias. 

Edwards was taken to Coney Island Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. 

Residents said a second suspect fled the scene wearing what looked like a construction hardhat. Police are still looking for that suspect. 

A jittery neighborhood was trying to keep calm Tuesday after the violent night.

"I just thought this was insane because this is such a great neighborhood," said Rosalia Mineo, who works nearby.

There was no answer at Edwards' listed address in Bed-Stuy Tuesday. 

It was the second police-involved shooting in Brooklyn in as many days. On Sunday morning, cops shot an armed man who witnesses said was displaying "total irrational behavior" in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens.

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