Police: Officers shoot kill butcher knifewielding man on Lower East Side
Aug 16, 2026
The New York City Police Dept. provided new details Sunday night after a shooting where they say officers opened fire on a man wielding a butcher knife, killing the man. The suspect’s 75-year-old father was found injured with a cut to the head and hospitalized.
A police spokesperson said offic
ers responded to a 9-1-1 call around 4:00 PM on the Lower East Side at 126 Ludlow St. near Rivington St.
“When officers arrived and entered the building, they saw a trail of blood leading up the staircase,” said Asst. Chief Melissa Eger, Commanding Officer of Patrol Borough Manhattan South. “As they continued up the stairs, they encountered a male descending the stairs towards the officers with a large butcher knife.”
The scene near where officers shot and killed man who they say charged at them with a butcher knife, after they found a trail of blood. (Image: NBC New York via Citizen App)
Eger said officers repeatedly ordered the man, identified as Wei Chan, 54, to show his hands and drop the weapon.
Chan “continued to advance towards the officers, armed with the large butcher knife,” said Eger. “Officers responded and discharged their firearms, striking the subject.” He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Officers recovered the butcher knife at the scene, Eger said, as officers showed a photo of the knife to journalists.
The confrontation was captured on bodycam video, Eger said. Chan, she said, has no known criminal history with the NYPD, but has a documented mental health history, she said.
Chan’s father is expected to recover.
Four officers were also taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
The deadly shooting will be investigated by the NYPD’s force investigation division. The case is also expected to be probed by the New York state Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation, which looks into all deaths in the state that may have been caused by a police officer.
NYPD officials say this is the butcher knife held by the man who was shot and killed by officers after they say the man charged at them during a call on the Lower East Side Sunday afternoon (Image: NBC New York)
Debora Martyns of Sao Paulo, Brazil says she was in a group that had just arrived to take pictures at a nearby corner, known as “Beastie Boys Square,” their last stop of the day. As they stared out the window while ordering drinks at a bar, “there was a lot of police cars going by, and the police got out, and they started running, and we thought it was kind of like serious,” she said. “So we kind of peeked a little because we were kind of curious, and they were all going upstairs at this door.”
Martyns says the next thing she saw was firefighters arriving, along with an ambulance.
“They took this guy out, getting CPR,” she added. “That’s when I kind of got inside because it was too much for me.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted a note on social media about the shooting Sunday night, vowing that the bodycam video will be released.
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