Two men died following a chaotic incident in a Midwood apartment last night around 7:15. According to the NYPD, officers responding to a 911 call about a knife-wielding man attacking a woman at 820 Ocean Parkway arrived to find a 47-year-old man armed with a knife. Police say another man, age 51, "also entered the apartment. After ordering the suspect to drop the knife multiple times, police discharged their firearms striking the armed individual."
The knife-wielding man was pronounced dead at the scene, while the other man was transported to Maimonides Hospital, where he was pronounced DOA. Police say a woman and her two children, ages six and seven, had locked themselves in the apartment's bathroom as the knife-wielding man attempted to kick the door in. The woman and children were unharmed.
According to the Times, upon arrival the officers "were met at the doorway by a man with stab wounds, the police said. The wounded man charged into an apartment, where he was confronted by a man with a knife, who the police then shot, officials said." Two knives were recovered at the scene.
One of the knives (NYPD)
The Daily News has more details, and reports that the woman and the two men were bodybuilders caught in a love triangle. The man who police say brandished the two knives, Francisco Carvajal, was romantically involved with the woman, and he was reportedly jealous over her relationship with the third man, identified by the News as Rafael Laureano. One police source tells the tabloid that Carvajal "was a big guy. He looked like the mighty Hulk.”
Another source tells the News that Carvajal was stabbed in the chest by the woman after she wrested one of the knives away. When Laureano intervened, Carvajal attacked him, and he fled. From the News:
When cops arrived and gained entry into the apartment, Carvajal was still holding a knife. Laureano had made his way back inside the apartment — he may have slipped in as police entered — and he was a target of Carvajal’s blade, though there were conflicting accounts as to whether he had been stabbed.
“He came in to stop him and he got sliced,” a police source said of Laureano. “It was a nasty scene. There was blood all over.” Laureano and Carvajal were close together as the latter was lunging at both Laureano and the cops, the sources said.
When the three cops fired, Carvajal fell, mortally wounded, and Laureano also was hit, the sources said. It was not clear how many times each man had been hit or where to the body they had been shot. It also was not clear how many shots were fired between the three cops, but one police source said it was “quite a number” of rounds.
When it was all over, police were seen carrying the children from the apartment. "It was absolute chaos," one resident told ABC 7. "The children looked stunned. They were not crying; they just looked stunned. It's a very safe neighborhood, it's shocking for this neighborhood."
Three officers were taken to Maimonides Hospital for treatment of tinnitus. The NYPD says the investigation is ongoing, and the Medical Examiner will determine the exact causes of death.
