A New York City police officer on Monday fatally shot a man in a Queens apartment who officials said had pointed an “imitation gun” at officers who were responding to a 911 call reporting that shots had been fired at the building.
The man, whom the police did not immediately identify, refused officers’ commands to drop what appeared to them to be a real firearm, Jeffrey B. Maddrey, the Police Department’s chief of department, said at a news conference.
“It appears to be an imitation gun,” he said.
Chief Maddrey did not say whether the officers had worn and activated body cameras during the shooting, although the circumstances he described suggested they should have under Police Department guidelines. One of the officers fired “multiple shots,” he said, and hit the man at least once.
The shooting occurred shortly after 10:30 a.m. in a fourth-floor apartment at the Ocean Bay Apartments public housing complex in the Arverne section of the Rockaway peninsula, Chief Maddrey said.
Two uniformed officers responding to the 911 call came to the address, then went to the apartment based on an initial investigation, Chief Maddrey said. He did not say who made the call.
Lamont Davis, a porter, said he had been sweeping outside the building where the shooting occurred when two police officers appeared and asked whether he had heard anything unusual. He said he told them no. They told him they were responding to a report of gunfire, Mr. Davis said.
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