NYPD: Queens suspect dead after being shot by police during stabbing

Police said they shot and killed a 20-year-old Queens man Thursday after a stabbing that left his 8-year-old stepbrother dead and his father and stepmother with multiple injuries.

NYPD Patrol Chief John Chell said police were called to an apartment building on 94th Avenue near Sutphin Boulevard in Jamaica around 5:20 p.m. A 29-year-old woman, believed to be the suspect's mother-in-law, ran out of the building, bleeding from multiple stab wounds to her back and shoulders and pleading for help.

Building security called 911, Chell said. Officers arrived at the small apartment and found a 20-year-old man holding his 43-year-old father in a headlock over the kitchen sink with a knife to his throat, he said. The father had multiple stab wounds to his head and throughout his body, police said.

“They gave at least four commands, in English and Spanish, to drop the knife. He didn't,” Chell told reporters at a news conference at the scene. “They had to use their weapons to save this man's life, and that's what they did.”

Chell said officers fired one shot, hitting the suspect in the torso and preventing him from continuing the attack. He was taken to Jamaica Hospital in stable condition and later died of his injuries, police said Friday morning. His mother-in-law was also taken to the same hospital where she remains treated.

According to Chell, officers at some point discovered an 8-year-old boy in the apartment who had been stabbed multiple times. He was the suspect's half-brother and the son of the woman who was stabbed, police said. An 8-month-old girl was also found unharmed in the apartment.

Police said they were still trying to determine the family relationships between those involved. Authorities said it was unclear whether they all lived together in the apartment.

“They were a happy family,” said neighbor Vanessa Rivera, 37. “You should have seen them smiling, laughing, always cooking.”

The 8-year-old boy attended Rivera's son's birthday party last year on the roof of the building, she said. She added that she invited him again this year to her son's birthday party, which will be held in two weeks at a water park.

“He was so happy,” she said of the deceased boy. “He loved his mother.”