NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — The NYPD has released body camera footage of a police-involved shooting that occurred outside an East Village deli in June.
Police said Officer Jillian Suarez and her partner, Officer Melissa Brown, went to the Healthy Green Gourmet at Third Avenue and East 10th Street to get breakfast on the morning of June 4 and were followed inside by a 55-year-old man, later identified as Peyman Bahadoran.
Surveillance video shows Bahadoran yelling at Brown before he pulls out a 12-inch hunting knife and starts menacing her with it.
Brown tried to use her Taser on the suspect, but missed.
The officer then went behind the counter, while Suarez went outside to call for back up.
The suspect then turned his attention to a deli clerk and demanded cigarettes at knifepoint.
Video shows that when Bahadoran placed the knife on the counter to grab the pack, the quick-thinking clerk snatched the weapon and handed it to Brown.
Bahadoran then grabbed onto Suarez, who was standing in the doorway, and shoved her as he made his way out of the store.
In body camera footage released by the NYPD on Tuesday, Suarez could be heard repeatedly telling the suspect to "move back" while pointing her firearm at him.
Three other officers, identified as Bryan Rozanski, Michael Murphy and Lt. Luis Machado, arrived on the scene to see Suarez engaged in a confrontation with the suspect.
The NYPD said officers demanded the suspect stop advancing toward them, and Rozanski and Suarez each fired one shot, striking the suspect in the arm and back, when he lunged at Machado and tried to reach for the knife sheath strapped to his leg, which was empty. The suspect was armed with only a bottle of water when officers opened fire.
Officers on the scene applied a tourniquet to his arm and Bahadoran was taken to Bellevue Hospital where he was treated for his injuries and released.
Bahadoran was charged with robbery and several counts of menacing.
In an interview with the Daily News last month, Bahadoran, who is bipolar, said he suffered a mental breakdown and wasn't pushing officers, but "shooing" them away. He claims the shooting left him paralyzed.
Bahadoran's lawyer says the footage is evidence his client did not pose a threat to police officers.
The investigation is ongoing.
"After the investigation is complete the facts of the case will be presented to the first deputy commissioner's use of force review board which will evaluate the evidence to determine if the use of force applied in this case was justified and within department guidelines," NYPD spokesperson Carlos Nieves said.
The shooting came hours after a man was shot and critically injured by police in Brooklyn after the NYPD said that man had stabbed an officer in the neck with a knife and two other officers were shot during the “unprovoked attack.”