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WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT
Newly released bodycam footage captured the frantic minutes-long standoff at Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where a bloodied, blade-wielding madman barricaded himself in a room with an elderly patient and a staffer before rushing cops and being shot dead.
Chaotic video released by the NYPD showed officers surrounding the blood-smeared eighth-floor hospital room on Jan. 8 and repeatedly ordering 62-year-old patient Michael Lynch, who was blocking the ajar door, to drop a broken piece of toilet he was using as a makeshift blade.
Police rushed to the Park Slope medical center after receiving multiple 911 calls just before 5:30 p.m., including one where a hospital staffer told dispatchers the rampaging man was suicidal and armed.
“I have a patient who’s suicidal – he’s actually hurting himself right now – I need police here immediately,” the employee told the dispatcher over screams heard in the background, according to footage released Wednesday.
“We have security holding him down, but we need a little bit more assistance.”
When cops arrived at the frenzied scene, Lynch – a former NYPD officer who resigned in the 1990s – was holed up in the gory hospital room with an elderly patient and a security guard.
Officers repeatedly shouted at him to “drop the knife” as they pointed their guns at the blood-soaked man, who had previously been admitted to the Big Apple medical center for unknown reasons.
Minutes later, Lynch charged toward the cops, prompting Police Officer Jason Lui to unleash one round as two other cops deployed tasers – but they were ineffective, according to the heart-pounding footage.
The armed patient continued to clutch his weapon and refused to leave the room.
“Shots fired, shots fired,” Police Officer Brandon Bradley screamed, as his body camera recorded the roughly seven minutes of unfolding chaos.
Lynch – whose arms and gray sweatpants were stained with blood – was repeatedly ordered to drop his homemade blade in the tense back-and-forth lasting nearly four minutes when he abruptly slammed the door to the hospital room. Lui quickly rushed to reopen it.
Officers deployed their tasers again, but when the shocks failed to stop him and Lynch advanced with the ad hoc weapon, Bradley and Lui fired a total of three shots that struck him, while the stun guns were used three more times, the video showed.
Lynch hit the ground still gripping the blade and eventually fell onto his side.
He was taken into custody and treated at the same hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
The gory encounter forced the hospital to go into lockdown.
Police are continuing to investigate the deadly confrontation to determine if use of force was justified as part of standard protocol.
English (US)