STONY BROOK, N.Y. (AP) — One of two police officers who were stabbed during a confrontation on Long Island, New York, fired the gunshots that killed the attacker, police officials said Thursday as the officers remained hospitalized.
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison released more details of Wednesday afternoon’s incident in Medford during a news conference outside Stony Brook University Hospital, where the officers are being treated.
Both officers were recovering from wounds that are not life-threatening. One of them was on a ventilator, but in stable condition, Harrison said.
“By the grace of God, these officers will be going home to their loved ones,” Harrison said.
The officers responded to a 911 call about a man threatening residents at a condominium complex with a fire extinguisher, police said. When they approached the man, he pulled out a large knife, Harrison said.
The officers ordered the man to drop the knife, but he lunged at them and stabbed them, Harrison said. One officer was stabbed in his clavicle, neck and groin area, and the other was stabbed in his chest through his bulletproof vest, the commissioner said. A third officer was treated at a hospital for tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, and discharged, officials said.
One of the officers who was stabbed fired four shots at the man, striking him in the upper chest, Harrison said.
Authorities have not yet released the names of the officers or the man. The officers are both in their 20s with less than five years on the force. The man, 56, had served two years in prison for assaulting a police officer in 2011, police said.