A man with a meat cleaver attacked four girls inside a Brooklyn apartment on Sunday morning, sending them to the hospital.
The attack happened at a home on 84th Street just after 10 am when an 11-year-old girl, one of the victims, locked herself in a room and called 911. She told dispatchers that her uncle had stabbed her and her siblings.
“At that point [the cops] heard screams coming from behind the door to their left and immediately began forcing their way into the apartment, kicking down the door,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters at the scene.
“Once they entered, they encountered a man standing near the entrance holding a large meat cleaver covered with blood, and they could see blood on the floor of the home,” Tisch said. “The officers ordered the man to drop the weapon several times. He refused and advanced towards them.
“Two officers discharged their firearms, firing seven total rounds between them, striking the subject, ending the threat,” she said.
The victims are girls aged 16, 13, 11, and 8. They were all seriously hurt and taken to Maimonides Medical Center. Police said they are expected to survive.
“This could have ended very differently,” Tisch said, according to the New York Post.
The suspect, 49-year-old Lun Chang Chen, is in critical condition. Police believe he lived in the apartment. They are still trying to figure out why he attacked.
Photos from the scene show one girl outside the building, covered in blood, and the suspect being taken away on a stretcher.
“They brought out a guy on a stretcher, all bloody without a shirt,” neighbor Humbert Huerta said. “I don’t know who it was, but they shot him twice. They took him out and put him in the ambulance. Probably 40 years old.”
Tisch said another child, a boy, was there earlier but ran off to get help.
“Right now we know there were five children, four hurt,” she said. “This might be the father of some of them or the uncle. And, again, we’re going to work through that. And we believe the mother was out of the house.”
