Man attacks officers with meat cleaver in Manhattan

A police officer on Thursday shot a man carrying a meat cleaver near Macy's in New York City, a police source said, according to ABC News.

Officers ordered the man -- spotted on 32nd Street and Broadway, blocks away from the department store -- to drop the cleaver and opened fire when he did not, the source said.

The suspect was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center, according to the source, and is listed in critical condition.

One officer suffered a laceration to the head and a second officer may have been grazed, the source told ABC News.

Important points from the article:

“-The mayhem began less than a block from Penn Station during the height of rush hour after Akram Joudeh went into a blind rage when his illegally parked Nissan Sentra was slapped with a wheel lock, cops said.

-It ended with Detective Brian O’Donnell recovering from a 6-inch gash that runs from his temple to his jaw and his attacker in critical condition. (That would be a head shot that Akram went for)

-The drifter, who lived for a while with his uncle in Queens, has a lengthy criminal history that includes larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, criminal mischief and unauthorized use of a vehicle. (it was Elmhurst Queens)

-Joudeh was arrested for weapons possession in Brooklyn in July after cops found a pair of knives in his car.
He had been parked outside of a synagogue and was pacing back and forth. The charges were later dropped.

“I always knew there was something wrong with him,” said Joudeh’s former neighbor J.J. Williams, 19. “He didn’t like police.”

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