New York police officer critically wounded in hatchet attack
Officers face assailant wielding a hatchet as they pose for a photograph with tourists in Queens
A hatchet-wielding attacker charged a group of New York police officers posing for a photograph on Thursday, wounded two, one critically, before the assailant was shot dead, police said.
The officers were on foot patrol when they were asked by a freelance photographer to pose for a picture on a Queens street at about 2pm, a New York Police Department spokesman said.
Suddenly a man carrying a hatchet charged the officers, swinging it and striking one officer in the right arm and then swinging it again and striking a second officer in the head, the spokesman said.
The remaining two officers fired their weapons at the man, hitting him. The suspect, whose identity has not yet been confirmed but who was said to be approximately 32 years old, was pronounced dead at the scene.
A 29-year-old female bystander was struck by a stray bullet. She underwent surgery and was recovering at the hospital, the spokesman said.
Both officers were being treated at Jamaica Hospital, with the 25-year-old officer who was hit in the head undergoing surgery and in critical condition. The other officer, who is 24 years old, was in stable condition, the spokesman said.
