A road rage-related crash in Manhattan’s West Village late Thursday ended with a driver fatally shot by police, marking the second fatal police-involved shooting in New York City within five hours, authorities said.

The incident occurred just before 10:55 p.m. near Bedford Street and Sixth Avenue. Police said a 37-year-old man driving a BMW had been involved in a collision and was stopped in traffic when officers approached the vehicle after occupants of the other car flagged them down.

According to NYPD officials, the driver exited the BMW and pointed what appeared to be a firearm at the responding officers.

“At that moment, a 37-year-old male exited the BMW, drew what appeared to be a firearm and pointed it at the officers,” said NYPD Assistant Chief James McCarthy. “Upon observing the firearm, the officers discharged their weapons.”

The man was struck by gunfire and transported to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

McCarthy said the man continued to hold the weapon despite repeated commands from officers to drop it, even after he was shot. Body-worn camera footage shows officers continuing to instruct him to put the weapon down so they could render medical aid, McCarthy said. The man did not respond verbally.

Police recovered an imitation Sig Sauer handgun at the scene and said investigators will determine whether it was operable. The two officers involved were taken to local hospitals for evaluation.

A witness told police he saw the BMW traveling the wrong way on Sixth Avenue with its bumper dragging, pursued by a minivan. The BMW then stopped at a stop sign and reversed into the minivan, after which the occupants exited and flagged down officers.

The shooting came roughly five hours after another fatal police encounter earlier Thursday evening at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital.

In that incident, police responded around 5:30 p.m. to multiple calls reporting a violent man armed with a knife on the hospital’s eighth floor. Authorities said the suspect, a man in his 60s, barricaded himself inside a room with an elderly patient and a hospital security guard.

Assistant Chief Charlie Minch said officers observed blood on the walls and floor and repeatedly ordered the suspect to drop the weapon. The suspect appeared in the doorway holding a bloody knife, refused commands for more than three minutes, and attempted to force the door shut while the two individuals remained trapped inside.

Police said officers deployed multiple tasers, which were ineffective. When the suspect advanced toward officers again while holding the weapon, officers fired their weapons, fatally striking him. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The patient, a man in his 70s, and the security guard were not injured. Police recovered the knife inside the hospital room. Authorities said the suspect had been admitted to the hospital at some point on Wednesday, but it remains unclear how he obtained the weapon or whether he had any relationship to the people he held inside the room.

Both incidents are under investigation, as is standard in police-involved shootings, officials said.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)