Nassau County Police have laid out what happened in the police-involved shooting in Westbury, according to News 12 New York. The station reported that officers responded to the area of Brush Hollow Road near Talbot Drive around 11 p.m., after a 911 call reported a man acting irrationally and trying to stab people with a large knife.
A special operations team responding near a wooded area spotted a man matching the description and called for assistance, News 12 reported. As officers approached in their vehicle, police say the man came running from behind the bushes and smashed the passenger-side window of the police car.
According to the account relayed by News 12, the officer on that side turned as the knife came through the window and fired a couple of times, missing the man. The man then ran toward the rear of the car, where he was confronted by the second officer, who was driving, and who fired once, striking him in the face; police say the bullet went in one side of his jaw and out the other.
The man recovered at Nassau University Medical Center and was able to speak with investigators, who also spoke with his parents when they came to the scene, News 12 reported. Police say both officers were still inside their vehicle when the man charged, and that they had been in the area looking for another subject at the time.
Police said the man's only prior interaction with them was on April 13th of this year, when he was described as being in an altered mental state, News 12 reported. According to the account, the man was a medical student at Columbia University and, his parents said, had been going through depression.
The man now faces two counts of menacing a police officer, with the department saying upgraded charges are being weighed in consultation with the district attorney, according to News 12. Police framed the encounter as one that changed in a matter of seconds, saying the officers acted to defend themselves as the man charged their car.