Man Arrested, Charged in Brooklyn NYPD Stabbing

A 20-year-old man, identified as a suspect in an ambush where police officers were shot after another officer was stabbed in Brooklyn late Wednesday night, was charged on Friday, the NYPD said.

Dzenan Camovic of Brooklyn was charged with attempted murder of a police officer, robbery, assault of a police officer, criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment.

According to Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, two officers were working an anti-looting post at the corner of Church and Flatbush Avenues around 11:45 p.m. Wednesday when a man armed with a knife walked up casually and stabbed one of the cops in the side of the neck.

A struggle ensued and police believe the suspect managed to grab a gun from one of the officers before shots were fired.

According to authorities, two other NYPD officers in the area heard the shots and rushed to the scene. More shots were fired, police said.

When all was said and done, two cops had suffered gunshot wounds to the hand and the suspect was shot multiple times, Shea said.

All three officers were rushed to a nearby hospital.

“Thank G-d we’re not planning a funeral right now,” Shea said at a press conference early Thursday.

“About the same time, a block or two away, what we know at this point in time, is that we had a uniformed sergeant and police officer hearing shots fired that were coming from that initial scene, respond quickly to that scene. We believe that when they got there, they saw the perpetrator with a gun in his hand, which we believe belonged to one of the officers. What we know at this point in time, is that 22 shell casings have been recovered from a number of members of the service. We know that we had a chaotic scene with a knife recovered as well.”

The stabbing was one of multiple assaults on police officers in recent days, including a driver plowing into a sergeant in the Bronx, a lieutenant struck in the helmet by a brick during a brawl in Manhattan, a Molotov cocktail thrown into a van full of officers in Brooklyn, and gunshots fired at an occupied police cruiser in Queens.

Hours after the Brooklyn ambush, police in Queens shot a man they said followed two officers into a store, menaced them with a knife and refused commands to drop the weapon. He is hospitalized in stable condition, police said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the attacks on police officers “unconscionable.”

“People attack police officers? They run up to police officers, they stab a police officer? They’ve treated police officers with such disrespect in New York City that I am stunned,” Cuomo, a Democrat, said at a news briefing in Albany.