Officer and 3 Others Injured by Police Gunfire in Subway Station Clash

When officers shot a man wielding a knife on a platform in Brooklyn, an officer and two bystanders were also hit, the police said. One bystander was in critical condition.

A late-summer afternoon at an elevated subway station in Brooklyn exploded in chaos on Sunday as a police officer, a disturbed man armed with a knife and two bystanders were struck by police gunfire, the police said.

The officer was struck below his armpit and was in stable condition on Sunday night, the police said. The man with the knife was struck several times and was also in stable condition. A 49-year-old male bystander was struck in the head and was in critical condition. A 26-year-old woman, also a bystander, was grazed by a bullet and was stable.

The shooting occurred just after 3 p.m. at the Sutter Avenue stop on the border of East New York and Brownsville.

Two officers saw a man enter the station without paying and followed him up the stairs, said Chief Jeffrey B. Maddrey at a news conference on Sunday evening.

“The officers are asking him to take his hands out of his pockets,” Chief Maddrey said. “They become aware that he has a knife in his pocket. The male basically challenges the officers: ‘No, you’re going to have to shoot me.’”

A Manhattan-bound L train entered the station, and the man darted inside an open door. The two officers followed and fired their Tasers, but neither device was effective in subduing the man, Chief Maddrey said.