Detectives continue to investigate a police-involved shooting in Maspeth on Monday afternoon that claimed the life of a 54-year-old woman who allegedly charged at officers with a knife.
Law enforcement sources said the incident occurred just after 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 17 at a home on 69th Street near 52nd Avenue.
According to Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea, officers responded to the home after receiving a 911 call about a reported burglary. While the incident occurred in the 104th Precinct‘s confines, the responding officers were from the 110th, 111th and 114th precincts. They were on patrol in the area, according to Shea, to cover for 104th Precinct members who were attending a Monday funeral of a fellow officer who recently died.
They were met in front of the residence by the 54-year-old woman, identified as Susan Muller, who claimed that another female had broken into a second-floor apartment and may have been armed with a knife or a razor.
Shea said that the officers then entered the home and, less than a minute later, Muller came at them while wielding a knife. One of the officers ordered Muller to put the knife down; Shea noted that the order was recorded on the officer’s body camera.
“Subsequently, one officer discharges his service weapon three times, striking the female in the torso,” Shea said during a briefing at the scene. “Immediately after firing shots, aid is rendered.”
Paramedics rushed to the scene and Muller was pronounced dead from her injuries. No other injuries were reported.
A 10-inch kitchen knife that Muller allegedly brandished while charging at the officers was recovered from the scene. Through a preliminary investigation, Shea noted, detectives determined that she is the same person who originally placed the 911 call that brought the officers to the home.
“There’s a number of calls to this residence,” he noted, “and they varied in nature.”
Shea stated that having officers from other precincts covering a neighboring precinct during police funerals is a common practice within the NYPD.
“It doesn’t appear at this time that it had any bearing on the job,” he said.
The NYPD Force Investigation Division, a unit with the department that specifically examines police-involved shootings, is handling the case.
Watch Chief of Detectives Shea’s press conference below:
.@NYPDDetectives gives the press and public a briefing on today’s police involved shooting in the confines of the @NYPD104Pct in #Queens pic.twitter.com/FotV8klVbX
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) September 18, 2018
This story was updated on Sept. 18 at 11:45 a.m.
