Police shot and wounded a man who brutally attacked four young girls with a meat cleaver in Brooklyn.
On Sunday, police rushed to a home on 84th Street around 10:15am after an injured 11-year-old girl locked herself in her bedroom and called 911 to report that her uncle had started stabbing her and her siblings, according to the New York Post.
The girl did not know her address, police said, but officers managed to use the phone number to track her down to an address in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.
When police arrived – within minutes – they were let into the house by an uninjured child.
“At that point they heard screams coming from behind the door to their left and immediately began forcing their way into the apartment, kicking down the door,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters during a briefing at the scene of the incident.
When police entered the home, they found a man near the entrance holding a large, bloody meat cleaver. They also saw blood covering the floor of the home, according to Tisch. Police reportedly ordered the man to drop his knife several times, but he allegedly refused and began walking toward the officers.
That’s when a pair of police officers shot the man, who has been identified as Lun Chang Chen.
“Two officers discharged their firearms, firing seven total rounds between them, striking the subject, ending the threat,” Tisch said.
According to the commissioner, four girls were injured. The girls are ages 16, 13, 11 and eight. All of the girls suffered “serious slash and stab wounds” and were rushed to the Maimonides Medical Center for treatment.
The girls are expected to survive.
“This could have ended very differently,” the commissioner said. She also noted that a five-year-old boy was also living in the house at the time of the attack, but he ran to call for help immediately after the violence began.
Tisch said Chen’s exact relation to the family was still being determined.
“Right now we know there were five children, four hurt,” she said. “This might be the father of some of them or the uncle. And, again, we’re going to work through that. And we believe the mother was out of the house.”
The Independent has requested further information from the NYPD.
New York State Senator Steven Chan, who represents the district where the incident occurred, said the violence shocked his community.
“I personally grew up over here and I know many neighbors right here on this block, and I’ve spoken to some of them, and everyone is devastated and saddened by the events that unfolded here this morning,” Chan said, according to ABC 7.
According to the broadcaster, Chen’s family members said the man has struggled with mental illness for some time.
Chen, 49, was also transported to a hospital, where he is in critical condition. He is believed to have lived in the home with the girls.
Police have not revealed a motive in the attack, and the case remains under investigation.
A neighbor told the New York Post she saw two of the girls exit the house, and noted that they were “just covered in blood.”
Another neighbor told the paper that he saw Chen being taken away from the scene on a stretcher, and noted that the man was shirtless and also covered in blood.