Four girls were slashed Sunday in an attack that ended when a cleaver-wielding man was shot by New York City police.
The victims were 8, 11, 13 and 16 years old, according to WABC-TV.
The 11-year-old girl called 911, but there was a glitch.
“The 11-year-old caller stated that she and her siblings had been stabbed by her uncle. She did not know her address,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
Tisch said police traced the 10:15 a.m. call to the Bensonhurst area, where police entered an apartment building, according to WNYW.
She said, responding officers “heard screams coming from behind the door to their left and immediately began forcing their way into the apartment,” WABC reported.
“Once they entered, they encountered a man standing near the entrance holding a large meat cleaver, covered in blood, and they could see blood on the floor and the walls of the home,” Tisch said, per WNYW.
“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 and striking the subject, ending the threat,” she explained.
Was this shooting justified?
Tisch said the girls were rescued because of the combined efforts of the girl who called 911, technicians who sent officers to the address, and officers who kicked down a locked door, according to The New York Times.
All this, she said, “absolutely saved the lives of the young girls.”
“This could have ended very differently,” Tisch said, according to the New York Post, which called the attacker a “maniac.”
“Tisch told reporters that a fifth child, a boy, was in the apartment earlier and ran for help when the suspect launched his attack,” the Post wrote.
The suspect has been identified as Lun Chang Chen, 49, who lived in the same home as the victims. He was listed in critical condition on Sunday.
“I was watching through the window, and the girl covered in blood came out,” a neighbor identified only as Maria said. “And then there was another girl. The two girls were just covered in blood.
“I was shaking. I’m still shaking now,” she said. “I don’t usually see them. They just moved here. I lived here seven years, and there are a lot of new people moving here.”
WABC reported that the suspect had a history of mental illness.
It reported that in addition to the cleaver the suspect was holding, a bloody knife was recovered from the apartment.
“Police came in and did what they had to do to save the children. Terrible,” resident Carl Caltabiano said.
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