Recent York City police have released body-worn camera footage of officers shooting and killing a machete-wielding man who stabbed three people at a Grand Central subway stop last month.
The video clip posted on the department’s YouTube page Friday shows officers confronting Anthony Griffin after he had randomly slashed three people on the forty second Street-Grand Central subway station, which connects to Grand Central Terminal.
The uniformed officers, identified within the video as detectives Ryan Giuffre and Anthony Manetta, are seen encountering the 44-year-old as he walks up a stairwell holding a big knife at around 9:40 a.m. on April 11.
They order Griffin to drop the weapon multiple times, but Giuffre draws his gun as Griffin continues to carry the knife high near his head.
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Griffin then retreats back down the steps but starts moving toward the officers with the knife still overhead after they begin to pursue him.
“No person desires to hurt you,” Giuffre says within the video. “We are able to speak about it. Get down. Get down. Dude, I’m not going to ask you again. Please. Please. Please. Get down!”
But Griffin continues shouting and moving erratically toward the officers with the massive blade raised up.
“I don’t need to be here. Shoot me,” he says at one point. “I’m Lucifer,” he says at one other.
Giuffre then fires two shots at Griffin, who immediately drops to the bottom. He was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on the time of the incident that the officers ordered Griffin to drop the knife a minimum of 20 times but he refused to comply.
“Our officers were confronted with an armed individual who had already injured multiple people and was continuing to pose a threat,” she said. “They gave clear commands. They attempted to de-escalate. And when that threat didn’t stop, they took decisive motion to stop it and to guard Recent Yorkers on considered one of the busiest train platforms in the town.”
The three stabbing victims — an 84 year-old male, 65-year-old male and 70-year-old female — sustained injuries including “significant lacerations to the pinnacle and face” and a skull fracture, though the injuries weren’t considered life-threatening, Tisch said.
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