NYPD officials said officers shot and killed an armed 20-year-old man on the Upper East Side on Thursday night after he threatened to shoot up a hospital and fired at police on a busy sidewalk.
Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera said the man was first spotted around 7 p.m. in a residential building on Madison Avenue near East 106th Street, where he started speaking to another man in the elevator. “Seemingly without provocation,” he pulled out a gun and pointed it at the other man until the elevator reached the first floor, according to Rivera.
Rivera said the armed man then walked into a nearby deli, went behind the counter, pointed his gun at a worker and said, “Call 911, I’m going down to the hospital to shoot it up.”
The man stole the worker’s phone and fled south on Madison Avenue, according to police. Around 7:08 p.m., he entered Mount Sinai Hospital for a moment, then went back outside and placed his gun on the ground next to a tree, Rivera said.
The man went back into the hospital and encountered an off-duty NYPD officer working a paid security detail, according to authorities. Rivera said the man was acting “disorderly” and told the off-duty officer he had a gun, and the officer tried to take him out of the hospital. The man grabbed the officer from behind and they struggled briefly, Rivera said.
The man exited the building and picked up the gun he had left outside, the patrol chief said. The off-duty officer followed him and radioed for backup, Rivera said, and the man headed south on Madison Avenue.
The Upper East Side deli where police say a man they later shot pointed a gun at a worker on Nov. 13, 2025
A short time later, NYPD officers from the 19th Precinct pulled up in their vehicles and encountered the man between East 95th and 96th streets, according to police. Rivera said the man “immediately” opened fire at the officers, near several people who had just gotten off an MTA bus.
The officers fired back and struck the man, Rivera said. The patrol chief said they took him to a hospital in an NYPD car and he succumbed to his injuries. Rivera said the officers were also taken to a hospital for evaluation.
Police recovered the man’s gun at the scene of the shooting, and the whole encounter was captured on surveillance video and the officers’ body-worn cameras, according to officials.
“Every day, our officers put on their uniforms and they encounter dangerous situations across this city,” Rivera told reporters. “But it's another kind of danger when someone goes into a deli and a hospital with a gun and opens fire directly at the NYPD.”
Traces of blood still streaked the sidewalk on Madison Avenue by the East 96th Street bus stop Friday morning. Neighbor Marissa Zackowitz said her family was shaken by the incident, especially their nanny, who encountered the armed man while walking their dogs.
“He had no shirt on and he like bumped into her. She had to pull the dogs out of the way,” Zackowitz said. “And like a second later the shooting started, some dog walker grabbed her and they hid behind a car.”
After hearing about what was unfolding, Zackowitz said she called her 11-year-old son, who was coming home from hockey practice.
“I was like, ‘Where are you?’ He was on 97th between Madison and Fifth. I said, ‘Don't move. Stay in the car.’ And I ran to go get him” she said. “He was crying, he was really scared.”
“ The only thing that gave us comfort last night was the brave police officers that were out here protecting us,” she added.
Police did not release the man’s identity as they worked to notify his family. Residents who spoke to Gothamist at the building on Madison Avenue and East 106th Street, where he allegedly threatened someone in the elevator, said they didn’t recognize him.
This story has been updated with additional information.
