NYPD releases video of machete attack shooting at Grand Central station
NEW YORK– The New York Police Department has released body-worn camera footage of officers shooting and killing a machete-wielding man who stabbed three people at a Grand Central subway station last month.
The video clip posted Friday to the department’s YouTube page shows officers confronting Anthony Griffin after he randomly punched three people at the 42nd Street-Grand Central subway station, which connects to Grand Central Terminal.
The uniformed officers, identified in the video as Detectives Ryan Giuffre and Anthony Manetta, are seen encountering the 44-year-old man as he walks up a stairwell with a large knife around 9:40 a.m. on April 11.
They order Griffin to drop the gun several times, but Giuffre draws his gun as Griffin continues to hold the knife high near his head.
Griffin then backs up the stairs but begins to move toward the officers with the knife still above their heads when they begin to pursue him.
“No one wants to hurt you,” Giuffre says in the video. “We can talk about it. Get off. Get off. Dude, I’m not going to ask you again. Please. Please. Please. Get off!”
But Griffin continues to scream and move erratically toward the officers with the large blade raised.
“I don’t want to be here. Shoot me,” he says at one point. “I am Lucifer,” he says in another.
Giuffre then fires two shots at Griffin, who immediately falls to the ground. He was transported to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at the time of the incident, officers ordered Griffin to drop the knife at least 20 times, but he refused to comply.
“Our officers were confronted by an armed individual who had already injured several people and continued to pose a threat,” she said. “They gave clear orders. They attempted to de-escalate the situation. And when this threat did not stop, they took decisive action to stop it and to protect New Yorkers on one of the city’s busiest train platforms.”
The three stabbing victims – an 84-year-old man, a 65-year-old man and a 70-year-old woman – suffered injuries including “significant lacerations to the head and face” and a fractured skull, although the injuries were not considered life-threatening, Tisch said.
