A gunman hell-bent on a deadly confrontation — including at a hospital where he could “shoot it up” — was fatally shot by an NYPD police officer Thursday night in what sources told the Daily News was “suicide by cop.”
Shots first rang out around 7:20 p.m. near E. 96th St. and Madison Ave., police and witnesses said. Police canvassed the area after getting reports 20 minutes earlier of a man with a gun near E. 107th St. and Madison Ave., and then spotted the suspect on Madison Ave. between E. 96th and E. 95th St., according to authorities.
“It was a 20-year-old man,” a police source told The News. “He shot first at one of our officers,” who returned fire, striking him, the source said.
At a news conference late Thursday, Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera said the victim, who was not identified, appeared to be an “EDP” — an emotionally disturbed person. “That’s an avenue we’re investigating,” he said.
“Usually in these cases, they usually don’t fire rounds. In this case, he fired at least one round,” he said.
NYPD officers and detectives investigate a police involved shooting on Madison Ave. between E. 95th St. and E. 96th St. Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)Rivera said the gunman was first seen in an elevator at a residential building at 1590 Madison Ave., where he began “speaking to another man in the elevator, and then, seemingly without provocation, pulls out a firearm and points it directly at the male, keeps the firearm pointed at the male until the elevator gets to the first floor of the building, where he exits the elevator and the building.”
The unhinged gunman then headed to a nearby deli on Madison Avenue at East 107 St., and “goes behind the counter and points the firearm at a deli worker standing behind the counter and says to him, ‘Call 911, I’m going down to the hospital to shoot it up’,” Rivera said.
Next. the gunman walked into Mount Sinai Medical Center. and quickly backed out and onto the sidewalk to put his gun near a tree, Rivera recounted.
“He then re-enters Mount Sinai Hospital, where he encounters an off-duty member of the service who is working a paid detail security post at the hospital,” Rivera said — and winds up in a a struggle with the off-duty cop. When the gunman grabs his firearm off the ground, the off-duty officer calls for help, Rivera said.
But the gunman kept walking southbound on Madison Avenue, “where ultimately members of the 19th precinct encounter him on Madison Avenue between 96th and 95th Street,” Rivera said.
“The officers exited their vehicles, and the individual immediately discharges the firearm at the officers with multiple civilians in close proximity who had just gotten off an MTA bus,” Rivera said.”The officers returned fire and strike the individual. His firearm was recovered at the scene.”
The suspect was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition, where he died, according to multiple police sources.
“I saw it. It was a scuffle over by the bus stop,” said one witness Layla Helou, 26. “There were police officers telling someone to stop. He pulled out a gun and started shooting. It was a close range sort of thing.”
“It was about nine gunshots,” said Malay Greshwell, 24, who works nearby.
“I saw him lying on the ground. He was on his side. He was bleeding. He was leaking. It looked like he was shot in the head,” Greshwell said of the gruesome scene. “The cops were looking at him to see where he was wounded before they put him on a stretcher.”
“I was petrified. I’ve never seen anything like this before,” added Greshwell, who lives in the Bronx.
“I pulled my son by his shirt, and we sat down behind a big wall and waited it out,” said bystander Jonathan Trichter. “It happened so fast. The cars were definitely in pursuit.”
Trichter’s 11-year-old son, who was walking with his dad, recounted, “I heard shots. At first I thought it was fireworks.”
“I saw the police cars coming out and turning off of Madison,” the boy continued. “But then I realized it wasn’t fireworks. It was gunshots, six gunshots. We took cover.”
