Multiple people were seriously injured Sunday morning in a brutal stabbing attack in a New York home.
Police shot the attacker, who slashed four children at a residence in Brooklyn with a meat cleaver, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a briefing Sunday afternoon.
The police department got a call at around 10:15 a.m. for an assault in progress at 1671 84th St. in Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, she said.
"The 11-year-old caller stated that she and her siblings had been stabbed by her uncle," Tisch said, adding that the child did not know her address but that police technicians were able to determine it using technology.
Officers were let into the residence by an uninjured child and heard screams coming from a door to their left. They kicked down the door of the apartment and saw a man standing near the entrance "holding a large meat cleaver covered in blood," Tisch said.
"And they could see blood on the floor and the walls of the home," she said.
The man, who was identified as Long Qian Chen, 49, was ordered to drop the weapon several times but refused and advanced toward officers, authorities said.
"Two officers discharged their firearms, firing seven total rounds between them and striking the subject, ending the threat," Tisch said. Tisch said Chen was taken to a hospital in critical condition.
Officers found four victims, all girls, ages 8, 11, 13 and 16, Tisch said. All of them had "serious slash and stab wounds," and were taken to area hospitals, where they are expected to survive. Police said another child, an uninjured boy, was also at the home during the attack and went to the neighbor's house to ask the neighbor to call 911.
Police said that they believe the man is related to the victims but that they are still investigating the exact relationship.
Tisch lauded the heroism of the 11-year-old girl, who hid in a room to call police, and the boy, who went to alert a neighbor.
Two knives were recovered, and a motive is under investigation, police said. Chen has a history of mental illness, police said, citing his family.
Police say Chen was charged with four counts each of attempted murder, assault in the first degree, assault in the second degree, endangering the welfare of a child, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon. He was also charged with two counts of menacing a police officer.
Chen has not yet been arraigned because he is still in the hospital, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
There were no previous instances of domestic violence at the home, Tisch said.
CORRECTION (April 6, 2025, 3:47 p.m. ET) Due to an editing error, a previous version of this article misstated that the suspect was fatally shot. He was shot and taken to the hospital in critical condition, police said.
