A man with a knife was shot to death on the sidewalk behind a Harlem NYPD precinct stationhouse, police said Monday.
The victim was behaving irrationally when he approached with a knife two men walking past the 28th Precinct stationhouse on Frederick Douglass Blvd. near W. 123rd St. about 11:40 p.m. on Sunday, police sources said.
Surveillance video from a nearby deli shows the victim moving aggressively toward one of the men before they move in opposite directions. That’s when one of the men pulled out a gun and shot the victim in the head.
Medics rushed the victim to Mount Sinai Morningside hospital, but he could not be saved. He was not carrying identification when he was killed, and cops were still working to identify him Monday.
“He has been coming here for a long time,” Nicacio Lazaro Hernandez, who runs a flower stand outside the deli, said of the victim. “He’s always asking for money.”
“I was closing my shop for the day when two people were coming,” he added. “They were playing. He played with all the people. But when the older man turned around he had a gun and shot him.”
Police said ballistic evidence was recovered at the scene, but no arrests have been made.
Witnesses said two shell casings were recovered by cops.
Hernandez was facing away from the victim and shooter when the shots rang out.
“It’s my birthday today,” he said. “Maybe if he’d hit my back I wouldn’t be here.”
Originally Published: May 19, 2025 at 7:55 AM EDT
