Scruffy beard, sandals, previously arrested for carrying knives near a synagogue, living out of his car… and then he pulled a meat cleaver from his waistband and attacked a cop after his car was booted:
The man who allegedly hit an off-duty NYPD detective in the head with an 11-inch meat cleaver during a dramatic Midtown Manhattan confrontation has been identified as Akram Joudeh, 32, formerly of Queens. Joudeh was shot multiple times on West 32 Street, near Penn Station, by several officers at around 5pm Wednesday after a dramatic chase that culminated in three officers being injured, cops said.
The detective suffered a six-inch gash from his temple to his jaw, while Joudeh was left in hospital in critical but stable condition. Police were called out at around 5pm after Joudeh was seen trying to prize a boot off his car on West 31 St and Broadway. It’s believed the man, whose last registered address is in Queens, has been sleeping in the car.
The vehicle had reportedly been parked in the middle of the street, which is located in a busy, tourist-heavy area of Midtown. When police approached, however, he went into a rage, pulling out the cleaver and fleeing while ‘waving it around,’ a police spokesman said.
After slashing the cop, detective Brian O’Donnell, Joudeh faced the wrath of the NYPD, who promptly filled him full of lead:
Cops were called to the area just before 5 p.m. when several people saw a man with a scruffy beard and wearing sandals running with a meat cleaver in his hand, according to witnesses and initial reports. “He was running down the street, waving it,” said an MTA worker who asked not to be named. “The cops were chasing him.”
A phalanx of officers, including the off-duty detective, finally surrounded Joudeh on 32nd St. between Broadway and Sixth Ave. and told him to drop the weapon, but he refused. “Drop it! Drop it!” the cops screamed repeatedly, according to witnesses. Cops used a Taser on the man, but it had no effect, according to a high-ranking police source.
When the detective tried to knock the blade from his hand, he struck the cop in the head with it, leaving him with a deep gash. Then all hell broke loose, a witness said. “They shot him up,” the witness said. “He was hit five or six times. He was laid up on the sidewalk. It looked like he was dead.”
#NYPD: Meat-cleaver suspect Akram Joudeh was trying to remove boot from his car when officers confronted him #nbc4ny pic.twitter.com/atX7fMPohI
— Steven Bognar (@Bogs4NY) September 15, 2016
Outgoing Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said he visited all three officers in the hospital and said that the injured detective is in “good spirits, but he has a very significant injury to his head caused by the wielding of that meat cleaver.” Mayor Bill de Blasio also went to Bellevue Hospital to check on the wounded officers.
Joudeh was in critical condition and being moved into the operating room when Bratton was at the hospital, Bratton said.
O’Neill said that police had used a Taser, striking the suspect with no effect, during their encounter with Joudeh before he attacked the detective. Police said they plan to investigate why the Taser was not effective.
O’Neill said Joudeh had a number of prior arrests, but wouldn’t comment further.
Fifteen years after 9/11, and this is happening in New York City. As Pam Geller notes:
This is going on daily all across Europe. Israel is victim to this as well. Obama is bringing in a quarter of a million of these adherents here.
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